The verb manquer is often very troublesome for English speakers of French because its structure is reversed when it applies to emotions compared to events.
Look at these sentences with the verb manquer in a pragmatic sense:
Note that to say you missed a train or school, it's very straightforward.
ATTENTION: To express lacking [something], you will use manquer de or d' + [thing].
You do not need use the partitive articles (du, de l', de la, des) here, just as you wouldn't say I lack the sugar but simply I lack sugar:
Je manque de sucre pour faire ce gâteau.
I lack sugar to make that cake.
Je manque d'argent pour payer mes factures
I don't have enough money to pay my bills
Note: when manquer de is used with rien (I lack nothing), you need to add the negation ne in front of the verb.
ATTENTION: you cannot use manquer this way to miss a person (or thing) emotionally.
See Manquer (à) = To miss someone/something emotionally
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Je ne manque rien.
I don't miss anything.
Je ne manque de rien.
I lack nothing.
Il manque toujours de courage.
He always lacks courage.
Je manque de sucre pour faire ce gâteau.
I lack sugar to make that cake.
to lack something
Je manque d'argent pour payer mes factures
I don't have enough money to pay my bills
to miss an event
Jacques a manqué son train
Jacques missed his train
J'ai manqué l'école
I missed school
Q&A
Chris
Kwiziq community member
24/10/17
-- Chris.
Ron
Kwiziq community member
15/10/17
I noticed both of your posts; however, I am unable to understand your question.
manquer(de) conjugates like any other -er verb. The peculiar with this verb is this:
If I want to say «I miss you» in French it becomes ---> «Tu me manques». As can be seen, manquer conjugates as expected even in the plural:
«we missed you» ---> «tu nous manques» or «vous nous manquez»
Siner
Kwiziq community member
16/10/17
My question was about the form of ; je manque le spectacle or je manque de sucre...
Because on the lesson all the examples are in singulier form so I was wondering if it is a form a kind of " Il faut " just in one way. (Sorry English is not my mother langue as well so it is a bit hard to explain for me.)
in the form of "we miss you" we conjugate the verb for "you " vous nous manquez " so that's why I was a little bit lost but now I can see that we should consider it as a normal way of the conjugation as" nous manquons d'argent ."
I hope I can explain my self better this time but anyway I think I found the answer by trying to explain my question ;)
Chris
Kwiziq community member
16/10/17
si tu veux dire "I miss my pens" you would translate this as "je manque de mes stylos". Comme tu peux voire, le principe reste le même dans le pluriel.
J'espère d'avoir pu t'aider.
-- Chris. (Attention, le français n'est pas ma langue maternelle.)
Chris
Kwiziq community member
16/10/17
-- Chris.
Siner
Kwiziq community member
16/10/17
Le deuxième example c'est correspond à mon question ,exactement.
merci
Ron
Kwiziq community member
15/10/17
I noticed both of your posts; however, I am unable to understand your question.
manquer(de) conjugates like any other -er verb. The peculiar with this verb is this:
If I want to say «I miss you» in French it becomes ---> «Tu me manques». As can be seen, manquer conjugates as expected even in the plural:
«we missed you» ---> «tu nous manques» or «vous nous manquez»
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
8/08/16
No, you still need the preposition: Je ne manque de rien.
John
Kwiziq community member
8/08/16
Laura
Kwiziq language super star
8/08/16
Missing a train or school is different - you're not physically missing them in the sense that you're unable to hold them in your hands. Rather, you were supposed to be in / on them and weren't - you missed catching / being at them.
Does that make sense?
Joakim
Kwiziq community member
18 March 2016
2 replies
Manque de ?
I keep getting this one wrong despite having read the lesson multiple times. What property of X determines whether it's "manque X" or "manque de X"? It says manque deLaura
Kwiziq language super star
21/03/16
It's a question of meaning.
When you mean "I miss" something (you missed the train, you missed school, you miss your plane) the noun is abstract and there's no de.
When you mean "I lack" (you lack sugar, you lack money, you lack time), the noun is concrete - you are physically missing the object - you need de.
Joakim
Kwiziq community member
21/03/16
Joakim
Kwiziq community member
17 March 2016
2 replies
Partitive article
In this lesson I'd like to see something about why no article is needed on the thing that is missing. E.g why is "Je manque du argent pour payers mes factures" wrong?
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
17/03/16
Bonjour Joakim,
We've now added more precision to this lesson as to why you only use de or d' : indeed, "To express lacking <something>, you will use manquer de or d' + thing.
You won't use the partitive articles (du, de l', de la, des) here, just as you wouldn't say "I lack the sugar" but simply "I lack sugar")."
Here is a link to the updated lesson with added examples:
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/manquer-de-thing-to-miss-lack-something
Voilà !
Joakim
Kwiziq community member
17/03/16
william
Kwiziq community member
1 January 2018
3 replies
Je manque de concert . . .
The test says that "I missed the concert of . . " is ''J'ai manqué du concert . ." . In the lesson it says '''I missed the train'' is ''J'ai manqué le train'''. What is the difference between ''concert'''and ''train''? Why is one noun preceeded by '''de'' and the other not? Thx
Jim
Kwiziq community member
1 January 2018
1/01/18
The example of "J'ai manqué le train" is a form of transitive usage of the verb ie. the verb taking a direct object "le train".
The example "J'ai manqué de le concert ..." is more difficult to explain -- it looks like a transitive usage indirect in the sense of "being deprived of." So without knowledge of the full sentence, it seems to me that the meaning is that something has caused the subject "j" to be "deprived of" the particular concert rather than a general sense of a concert.
That's my input, but I think that it would be nice to see a further comment from an expert.
Good luck,
Jim
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
28 February 2018
28/02/18
Hi both,
This sounds like a typo error to me ,
I missed the concert of , should be,
j'ai manqué le concert de...
Will pass on your comments and try to get it rectified.
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
5 March 2018
5/03/18
I have now checked and the correct answer is correctly marked as:
J'ai manqué le concert de Michael Jackson en 1992 à Paris.
Hope this helps!