5791
What's the best way to say "to miss" in the sense of feeling a longing for
something, or that something pleasant is missing? I understand there's
[懐]{なつ}かしむ, but it seems to me that, like 懐かしい, is more appropriate for
recalling your childhood home or a great vacation or something like that, not
a "smaller" context like "I miss having lunch with you on the weekends" or
something like that. Am I wrong?
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2012-06-09T09:25:27.673
5785
2014-06-02T21:00:05.400
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question
word-choice translation
Saying "to miss" ("I missed you over the weekend")
In that situation, it is more natural to express that you are lonely without
the person.

> 週末はあなたがいなくて寂しかった。  
>  'I was lonely without you during the weekend.'
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2012-06-09T11:43:34.623
5791
2012-06-09T11:43:34.623
5785
answer
I think one way is to use 会いたい
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2012-06-09T12:59:40.587
5792
2012-06-09T12:59:40.587
542
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answer
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to converse with a professional J-E
conference translator who is native Japanese, and I asked him this very
question. After some thinking about it, he suggested 恋しい【こいしい】.

Looking in the Wisdom J-E dictionary to verify, I came across the following
example sentence and translation that seems to support this:

> あの人がとても恋しい "I miss that person very much."

Some other examples I've found include:

  * 故郷が恋しい "I miss my hometown."
  * 寒くなると火が恋しい "When it gets cold we long for fire"

So in short, while most English speakers would take 恋しい at its basic meaning
of "beloved", it seems it also carries overtones of longing as well which lend
itself to the purpose of "I miss X" in English.
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2014-06-02T21:00:05.400
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2014-06-02T21:00:05.400
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answer