How to Say Miss in Spanish: Extrañar, Perder, Faltar

Extraño a mi familia. Perdí el autobús. Falta una silla. Three sentences, and in English every one of them uses the same word: miss. I miss my family. I missed the bus. A chair is missing.

English is happy to use miss for almost everything: missing someone, missing a bus, something not being there, not having enough of something. Spanish doesn't work that way. Before it picks a verb, Spanish first asks you a question: what kind of missing do you mean?

This is where many learners get stuck. They look up "miss," grab the first verb in the dictionary and use it everywhere. Tranquilo. By the end of this article you'll have one simple question that tells you which verb to use, every time.

The question to ask yourself

Don't memorize miss = extrañar. Ask yourself: what does miss mean here? An emotion, a lost chance or event, or something absent?

Translate the meaning first, then pick the verb. That's the whole trick. Spanish has a verb for each kind of missing, and once you know the kind, the verb picks itself.

1. Extrañar and echar de menos: you feel the absence

This is the emotional one. Someone or something isn't with you, and you feel it.

• Extraño a mi familia. I miss my family.
• Extraño a mis amigos. I miss my friends.
• Extraño mi casa. I miss my house.
• Echo de menos a mi familia. I miss my family.
• Echo de menos vivir cerca del mar. I miss living near the sea.

Pay attention here: extrañar and echar de menos mean the same thing. So what's the difference? Mostly, it's regional. Extrañar is extremely common in much of Latin America. Echar de menos is especially common in Spain. Both are understood widely, and neither one is wrong.

Here's Profe Juan's personal take, and it's an opinion, not a rule: to him, echar de menos sounds a bit more formal, a little like "TV Spanish," while extrañar feels more everyday. Your ear may tell you something different depending on where you learn. If you're unsure, pick one and use it. People will understand you.

If you want the full story of that second expression, read how to use echar, where echar de menos sits next to all the other uses of that verb.

2. Perder: a chance, a ride or an event slips away

Now the missing isn't a feeling. You failed to catch something, keep something or take advantage of something. That's perder.

• Perdí el autobús. I missed the bus.
• Perdí el tren. I missed the train.
• Perdí la oportunidad. I missed the opportunity.
• No quiero perder esta oportunidad. I don't want to miss this opportunity.

And look at this little change. When you add se, you get perderse algo: you weren't there for it.

• Me perdí la reunión. I missed the meeting.

The meeting happened. You just weren't in it.

Now imagine you mix them up and say Extraño el autobús. Grammatically, fine. But it means you emotionally miss the bus. Maybe your dad drove one, and you have great memories of riding it to the beach. A little dramatic, yeah, I know. If you just didn't get on it in time, it's Perdí el autobús.

3. Faltar: something isn't there

The third kind of missing is about absence or not having enough. Something should be there, and it isn't. That's faltar.

• Me falta tiempo. I don't have enough time.
• Me falta dinero. I'm short on money.
• Nos falta una persona. We're missing one person.
• Falta una silla. A chair is missing.

Notice how the focus shifts. Compare these two:

• Yo extraño a Juan. I miss Juan. I feel his absence.
• Falta Juan. Juan isn't here. He's missing from the group.

With extrañar, the sentence is about you and your feeling. With faltar, the sentence is about what's absent. Same English word, two completely different pictures.

And here's a bonus line you'll hear in songs and in love: Me faltas tú. It's a common romantic phrase, and it lives right between the two worlds. Literally, "you're missing from me," you are what I lack. In English we'd just say "I miss you," but in Spanish it says something a little deeper: without you, something is missing in my life. Isn't it beautiful? It is.

Compare them side by side

Let's put them next to each other, and ask the question for each one.

• Extraño a mi mamá. I miss my mom. An emotion.
• Perdí el tren. I missed the train. A lost chance.
• Me perdí la reunión. I missed the meeting. An event you weren't there for.
• Falta una silla. A chair is missing. Something absent.
• Me falta dinero. I'm short on money. Not enough of something.

Five English sentences with miss. Three different Spanish verbs, and the meaning decides every one.

One week away from home

Let's put everything into one scene. Imagine you spend a week away from home for work.

• On Monday, you're running late. Perdí el tren. I missed the train. You take the next one.
• Because of that, me perdí la reunión. I missed the meeting. It happened without you.
• On Wednesday, you try to finish everything, but me falta tiempo. I don't have enough time.
• At dinner with your coworkers, someone counts heads: Falta una persona. One person is missing. Then the waiter notices: Falta una silla. A chair is missing, too.
• On Friday night, alone in the hotel, you call home: Extraño a mi familia. Extraño mi casa. I miss my family. I miss my house.
• And to your partner, before you hang up: Me faltas tú.

One week, one English word over and over, and Spanish chose a different verb each time based on what kind of missing it was.

The edges, honestly

These aren't perfectly separated boxes. Me faltas tú uses faltar but carries a lot of emotion. And the line between extrañar and echar de menos is about region and feel, not meaning. But the question still gets you to the right verb almost every time, and that's what you need when you're speaking.

Recap

• An emotion, someone or something you feel the absence of: extrañar or echar de menos. Extraño a mis amigos.
• A lost chance, a ride you didn't catch, an event you weren't at: perder and perderse. Perdí el autobús. Me perdí la reunión.
• Something absent or not enough: faltar. Falta una silla. Me falta tiempo. Don't translate the word miss. Translate the meaning, then pick the verb.

Your turn

Say this one out loud in Spanish: "I miss my friends, but I also missed the train yesterday."

Ask the question twice. The friends are an emotion. The train is a lost chance. So: Extraño a mis amigos, pero también perdí el tren ayer.

Then write one sentence of your own about something you miss this week, and ask yourself which kind of missing it is.

Next, go deeper on the third verb in how to use faltar, where me falta, faltan dos minutos and me faltas all come from one idea. Profe Juan walks through all four ways to say miss in the full lesson on Learn Spanish From Scratch. Watch it above.