"He misses his family."
Translation:Gli manca la sua famiglia.
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Mancare works like piacere. In English you miss or like somebody, but in Italian they make you miss or like them. The subject in English becomes the object in Italian, and don't forget to conjugate the verb appropriately as well!
- I miss you/Tu mi manchi
- You miss me/Io ti manco
- I miss her/Lei mi manca
- She misses me/Io le manco
It would've been much simpler if I didn't try to use "sentire la mancanza di".
Why not "gli manca sua famiglia"? Is family considered plural, requiring the article? Otherwise I thought I could omit it
It is because you have to see la famiglia as one person (and conjugate verb as 3rd person singular).
However, la famiglia is not considered a 'close family noun' where you can omit the article such a madre (mother), padre (father) and other close, singular family members, so a good idea is to always remember the article.
No, it is singular but doesn't count as a close relative for the purpose of omitting the article.
i am confused by the conjugate here. I was testing it out by having a look in Google translate and i see that "he misses his boots" = " gli manca gli stivali ". but "she misses her clothes" = "le mancano i suoi vestiti". both objects are plural, but why manca in one and manano in the other?
Why is the article needed with "famiglia"? I thought the rule of thumb was to drop the article with family related nouns
It isn't generic family-related nouns, just "close relatives" - individuals (moms, dads, brothers, uncles, etc.)
I arranged it as "la sua famiglia gli manca" and it was accepted. It makes more sense to me this way, as a native english speaker.
I added the pronoun in front and was marked wrong: Lui gli manca la sua famiglia.
That's redundant, and also bad grammar I'm pretty sure. Gli means him in this context, so there is no need for lui.
