echar de menos

Spanish

Etymology

Originally an archaic and dialectal Old Galician-Portuguese idiom, achar (de) menos (“to feel an absence”, literally “to find missing”), entering in Spanish as echar (de) menos (mistaking Old Galician-Portuguese achar (“to find”) (Spanish hallar), with echar (“to throw”), both verbs pronounced similarly and both of them with a multitude of idioms).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eˌt͡ʃaɾ de ˈmenos/ [eˌt͡ʃaɾ ð̞e ˈme.nos]
• Syllabification: e‧char de me‧nos

Verb

echar de menos (first-person singular present echo de menos, first-person singular preterite eché de menos, past participle echado de menos)

1. (idiomatic, Spain, otherwise formal) to miss; to feel the absence of

   Synonyms: (most common in Latin America) extrañar, echar en falta

   Te echaré de menos. ― I'll miss you.

   • 2005, Paulo Coelho, translated by Ana Belén Costas, El Zahir:

     —Echas de menos tener hijos? —No ha sucedido, ¿verdad? ¿Cómo puedo echar de menos algo que no ha sucedido?

     —Do you miss having children? —It hasn't happened, right? How can I miss something that hasn't happened?

Conjugation

• see echar

Further reading

• “echar de menos algo o a alguien”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025