"Io non gli manco."
Translation:He does not miss me.
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Literally: To him, I am not missing.
Semi-literally: I don't make him feel like I'm missing.
Idiomatically: He doesn't miss me.
Thanks! This sentence even confuses Google translator: https://translate.google.com/#it/en/Io%20non%20gli%20manco.%20 (2014-08-13)
It's still confused. As of today (1.4.17) it translates it as "I did not miss". Not even close!
To me it translates as "I am not the I miss." I don't understand this at all.
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Google Translate on 19/10/18: "I do not miss them". It's not there yet, but at least we're in the present tense and it's included an object!
Today, Dec. 3, 2021, Google Translate takes "Io non gli manco" and translates it as "I don't miss me". If I drop the "Io" and type, "Non gli manco", Google says "He doesn't miss me. Go figure!
Where is the "to him?" Io means I. And why is it gli, which is a plural definite article meanomh the.
Seems to be something new, accusative 3rd person singular I assume
when I look up manco in my italiano-inglese dictionary, it is defined as 'left'?
That woud be "la manca": it's an outdated term, which used to mean "the weak/lacking (hand)", just like "la destra" means "the dexterous (hand)". There are still derivatives in use: for instance the usual term for a left-handed person is "mancino". It only shares an origin with the verb "mancare".
Io non gli manco.
Io = I
non = not
gli = to/for him/it
manco = I am missing
Literally: I not to him am missing.
Semi literally: To him I am not missing.
English idiomatically: He doesn't miss me.
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What, exactly, indicates that it is "he", and not "it" or "she"? Manco?
When she is missing me, is it "manca?" And what about "it misses me"?
Gli is he.. rather than "lo" which can mean he or it, and she would be "le"
Le manco = she is missing me Mi manchi = I miss you Ti manca = you miss it/ her Mancano le settimane = weeks are missing
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O.K I have been following the thread here and have done some research and asked some friends in the know about this, and also checked out the link provided by wynrich, which is a very good one. Basically as my Italian teacher also reminds me, often you cannot translate word for word with Italian, especially in cases where mancare and piacere are used. To translate this sentence so that it makes more sense to the English speaker you must think rearrange the wording, so that literally what is being said here is I am not missed by him, gli being the indirect pronoun for him. It took me a while to realize this , as I could not understand why Io was used, if it was He does not miss me, but when you translate it the way I did, it makes complete sense. Hopefully this helps.
One simple but stupid thought from someone who is now hopelessly confused: since when did "gli" stop meaning "the," as in "gli animali?" (Third time going all the way through the Italian module.)
It is strange isn't it? That "gli" means "to him" as well as "the, masculine plural". And "Le" means "to her" as well as "the, feminine plural". It's also strange that "gli" means "to them", whether masculine or feminine. (Yikes, Italian is so much more complicated than Spanish.) We probably have equally strange things in English but we are so used to them we don't even notice.
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Yes, the problem in this section with mancare is that we haven't yet been taught these types of pronouns. I was totally confused.
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I am confused because - although I guessed right - I do not remember having been introduced yet to this particular indirect pronoun. Naturally I am aware it is not being used in the context of "Gli animali".
Duo says this can mean both "they don't miss me" and "he doesn't miss me". Why is that?
"gli" can mean both "a lui" and "a loro"
"Io non manco a lui" = He doesn't miss me
"Io non manco a loro" = They don't miss me
A long review for pronouns, I don't know if you are ready yet, in case not you can only peek a little bit to have a general idea! :) http://duolingo.com/#/comment/233855 FAQ #11
"Mancare" works in a different way from English, like "Piacere". http://duolingo.com/#/comment/233855 FAQ #10
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Noooo, not piacere and the backwards sentences again... Just when I thought I was getting the hang of Italian :)
Literally "I'm not by him missed" - OK, I need to remember how these sentences are constructed!
It helps being a francophone x) as in french we use manquer in the exact same way. ' mi manca, il me manques'
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Yes indeed, you are quite right (but without the "s" -the 3rd person singular ends in "e" : il me manque ; the "s" would be ok if I was missing you : tu me manques).
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Io non gli manco. Think of this sentence as follows : 1) Io manco= subject +verb= I + cause pain due to my absence;
2) Gli = indirect objet corresponding to 3rd person singular, masculin = TO HIM
The statement becomes: "I cause HIM pain due to my absence"
3) Add "NON " = I don't cause HIM pain due to my absence. In other words:" He isn't suffering because of my absence" or "he doesn't miss me" We could also say: "My absence does not pain him"
I get confused by the 'Io'. would the setence not be correct just as 'Non gli manco' ?
Yes, sort of, "faltar" too, as in "Yo no le falto" / "Yo no le hago falta" as it would also mean "Él no me extraña"
While "Gli" is a plural definite article (Specifically the plural of "Lo"), It is also a pronoun, Being the dative form of "Lui" ("He"), Roughly translating to "Him" or "To Him", Depending on context.
no, reflexive is he / himself, or me / myself, etc.
you can see thwe reflexive pronouns here:
http://www.cyberitalian.com/en/html/gra_prpr.html
So, am I to understand that this is only somewhat similar to "piacere,' where the verb is conjugated in relation to the thing doing the pleasing and not the thing being pleased? If this were the same, "He does not miss me" would mean that "mancare" should be conjugated in relationship to to HE... But it's not... Really strange language y'all got. Sublimely beautiful but straight up random bordering on ridiculous sometimes...
I believe that if you think of "mancare" as meaning "to be missing to" then it works very much the same as "piacere" which means "to be pleasing to". I agree it's sure different than we'd say it in English.
The person who is being missed here is the subject "Io", which is why the verb is "manco", not "manca". "He" is the indirect object, "gli".
As the other responses have explained, the literal translation is "I am not missing to him", or less literally, "I am not missed by him", and in natural English, "He does not miss me".
For the verb "mancare", the subject is the one who is missed, and the indirect object is the one who misses that person.
I do not understand the use of the word gli in this sentence. I thought it is used for the plural as in gli uomini. One comment below said the verb meant to miss as in grieving. Does it suggest over hours of time or days or plural passage of memories?
Your question has been answered in other comments on this page, but it may help if you review Italian pronouns. As you'll see, "gli" is the indirect object pronoun for the third person singular masculine "lui" (he).
https://www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com/learn/italian/italian-tips/italian-pronouns
You are correct in saying that "gli" is also used as the plural definite article for some plural masculine nouns, but it has a different function in that case.
"Gli", like other words in Italian (and other languages) can be used in more than one way. You can almost always tell by context how these words are being used. In this case, since "gli" is followed by a verb, and not by a plural noun, we know it's not the plural definite article.
As for the verb "mancare", it does not suggest a period of time any more than "He missed me" does in English. It could be that he missed me for a few minutes, a few days, or many years.
This post explains more about "mancare" and other verbs that can be challenging for English speakers:
http://icebergproject.co/italian/2014/12/italian-word-speed-dates-bastare-mancare-and-piacere/
The forum says I should look at the searching facility before asking a question here in order to not annoy vulnerable souls. So, where's that searching machine?
No; "Mancare" (Of which "Manco" is a conjugation) better translates as "To be missing" in English than "To miss", So a literal translation of this would be something like "To him I am not missing", "I do not miss him" would be "(lui) non mi manca", I believe.
i thought gli means plural of il for words starting with vowels? why is it now he/him? not even a plural person?
Basically, There are two Italian words spelled and pronounced "Gli"; A definite article- The plural of "Lo"-, As well as a pronoun- The dative of "Lui"-.
