manquer, manquer à, manquer de
to miss (a thing), to miss (someone), to lack
Je ne peux pas voir Sophie, parce que j’ai manqué le train.
Elle me manque. Je manque de patience.
I’m not going to see Sophie, because I missed the train.
I miss her. I lack patience.
MORE ABOUT MANQUER
As if all the prepositions weren’t tough enough, manquer, in the sense of missing someone, is often a very difficult verb for native English speakers to master, because the word order isn’t the same as in English. In French, when we say elle me manque (or elle manque à moi), we are literally saying she is missing to me. This is simply one of those little things about the French language that must be learned. You might find it helpful to repeat the phrase to yourself several times to get the hang of thinking about it that way.
THIS WEEK
In French, a verb’s meaning can change considerably depending upon the preposition that follows it. This week, we’ll look at verbs and prepositions to see how several common verbs’ meanings can change slightly, or sometimes significantly. This is also a good time to remind ourselves that French verbs do not always take the same prepositions as their English counterparts.
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