"He misses his family."

Translation: Gli manca la sua famiglia.

[batsola]

why isn't lui instead of gli considered right?

[mukkapazza]

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

[ruth-mac]

I got away with using "a lui" instead of "gli"!

[DavidArmil]

It did not work for me.

[LauraTGruss]

Where did gli come from? Both he/him and family are singular.

[KayvonX]

Gli is the singular, male indirect object.

[mamad781631]

Why not "Lo manca la sua famiglia"

[BritalianoChi]

It would've been much simpler if I didn't try to use "sentire la mancanza di".

[schmilr]

Why not "gli manca sua famiglia"? Is family considered plural, requiring the article? Otherwise I thought I could omit it

[SanneTofte]

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.

[stevers]

No, it is singular but doesn't count as a close relative for the purpose of omitting the article.

[pinky738990]

I just can't figure out when to use "glu" for he or him.

[aaronbennack]

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.

[SampleREM]

I cannot figure this one out for the life of me ,how does the sentence even work ?

[Chris783722]

I have never used gli before except as the article "the".????

[babasbiki]

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?

[Bepe0]

makkapazza I understand your explanation but the noun "famiglia" is singular

[Hilda369350]

Im confused with gli here. Ive only used it as 'the' too. And he isnt plural anyway.

[Chris783722]

Gli has two meanings. It is the plural of " l'" as in gli elefante used as an article ( which are : a, an, " the" in English ) and later you will see that it is used as the pronoun for "him". DL just surprised us and threw a new usage in without preparing us for it. Hang in there! You are certainly not alone in your confusion.

[Saint930]

I think it's more along the lines of the passive voice in English. For example, if the question had been "His family is missed by him" , that would have made more sense to me. So the gli applies to the plural family. At least that's my take on it, and the way I've been looking at these.

[germz20]

Why is the article needed with "famiglia"? I thought the rule of thumb was to drop the article with family related nouns

[stevers]

It isn't generic family-related nouns, just "close relatives" - individuals (moms, dads, brothers, uncles, etc.)

[jjudez14]

I added the pronoun in front and was marked wrong: Lui gli manca la sua famiglia.

[kalashnikitty]

That's redundant, and also bad grammar I'm pretty sure. Gli means him in this context, so there is no need for lui.

[Mick771399]

Can you use la sua famiglia manca a lui?

[Inksi]

Is it possible: La famiglia gli manca???

[Chris783722]

I think that is possible, but you never know what DL will accept as correct until you try. Do not worry about losing hearts by making mistakes. You learn more by getting it wrong than by thinking you have gotten it down pat because it always can change. It gets a bit frustrating, but you do learn more from your mistakes. Hang in there.

[Evangelina76361]

So confuse with this sentence!