Help with french translation please

[Francis Asis]

Hi, I'm learning French from a book called "five minute French". There's a section covering sending a postcard and it includes the phrase "I miss you". In French this is "Tu me manques". Surely this means "You miss me"? I would have thought "I miss you" would be "Je tu manque"
Can anyone explain?
Thanks

[Prudie]

I think it's because manquer does not translate exactly as the english 'miss'. It's a transitive verb and means more, in this case, like 'cause to feel like yo'ure missing something', In other words tu me manques means literally 'you cause me to miss you'. Just a feature of the many language differences such as we say 'I am cold' and in French it translates to 'i have cold'

[MarkRae]

Prudie is correct. Manquer, in this sense, has the meaning of "to be absent". So, "tu me manques" means "you are absent to me" or, put another way, "you are missing from my life".

And, just for completeness, "je *te* manque" (not "je *tu* manque") means "you miss me" in the sense of "I am absent from your life".

Strangely, "manquer" is often translated in dictionaries as "to miss", but French doesn't usually use that verb where we would say "miss". In fact, the example you have given is one of the few occasions where they do. Much more common is "rater" or "louper"...

[Francis Asis]

Thanks very much. i thought it might be something like that but couldn't quite get my head around it.