"Io non gli manco."
Translation:He does not miss me.
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Thanks! This sentence even confuses Google translator: https://translate.google.com/#it/en/Io%20non%20gli%20manco.%20 (2014-08-13)
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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!
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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"?
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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.
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".
"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!
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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"
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...
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.
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/