Exercises Using Mancare

By Sigrid Lee

Let's try something a bit different this week. In a previous lesson, we went back to the basics on the verb mancare, that tricky verb that means to lack, to miss. Review the lesson if you need to.

Let's try translating some everyday phrases you might hear or want to say in Italian. You'll find the answers at the bottom of the page, but try not to cheat unless you need to. The important thing here is to get the idea, not to necessarily be precise about all the words. Use mancare in your Italian translation, and just get the gist of things when translating from Italian to English.

1) There's no salt!

2) It's ten to eight. (time)

3) Mancano ancora delle persone — the meeting is about to start.

4) Mi manca l'aria.

5) Manco dall'America da quattro anni.

6) I missed my flight [this one might be tricky].

7) Siamo quasi arrivati... we're almost there.

8) Manca solo Paolo. Lo aspettiamo?

In the following example, the same structure we talked about in this lesson presents itself in the sentence about style and groove. Manca il tuo stile. So something is lacking — his groove, something is missing. Manca.

But if we look further on, where it says: Ci manchi, it's basically the same thing, but it's more personal so we add the indirect personal pronoun ci (or any other one). So actually, the Italian is consistent in this. It's English that doesn't match the Italian. When it gets personal, we translate it with the action verb "to miss." Ci manchi could be translated literally as, "You are missing from our lives." You're missing and I feel it. Manchi dalla mia vita. Manchi a me. Mi manchi. I miss you.

La musica ti vuole.

Music wants you.

Manca il tuo groove, manca il tuo stile.

Your groove is missing, your style is missing.

Io ti voglio. -Ci manchi, ci manchi tantissimo.

I want you. -We miss you, we miss you so much.

Incredibile. Dove, dove, dove sei finito?

Incredible. Where, where, where have you gone to?

Captions 66-69, Chi m'ha visto - film - Part 23
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So let's add a couple more items to our list of sentences to look at:

8) I haven't seen my parents in years. I miss them.

9) Ti manco? (I am away from home on a business trip and wonder if my wife feels my absence, so I ask her this question).

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Here are some possible answers. Let us know if this helps in understanding how to talk about things that are missing, absent, or lacking, and also about getting personal and missing someone, feeling someone's absence (in which case we use indirect personal pronouns like mi, ci, ti, etc.) Please see this lesson, too, for more explanations and examples.

1) There's no salt! Manca il sale.

2) It's ten to eight. (time) Mancano dieci minuti alle otto.

3) Mancano ancora delle persone. (the meeting is about to start). Some people are still missing.

4) Mi manca l'aria. I can't breathe.

5) Manco dall'America da quattro anni. I haven't been back to the States for four years.

6) I missed my flight (this one might be tricky). Ho mancato il volo.

7) Siamo quasi arrivati... we're almost there. Manca poco.

8) I haven't seen my parents in years. I miss them. Mi mancano. Mi mancano i miei genitori.

9) Ti manco? (I am away from home on a business trip and wonder if my wife feels my absence, so I ask this question). Do you miss me?