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Old December 26, 2017, 07:27 PM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Mexico City
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Native Language: Mexican Spanish
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@Bob: I agree with Tomisimo that another kind of sentence may be more natural. Yet, I'd like to add a little comment:

The problem with "hacer falta" or "faltar" is that they may be ambiguous expressions, because the verb also means "to need" or "to lack", and they only mean "to miss" in a clear context when talking about people.

- Me falta ser joven. -> This sentence does not convey what you meant originally. For me, this means that being young is in my list of things I have (or would like) to be.
- Me hace falta nadar. -> I need to swim.
- Me falta juventud para hacer deportes. -> I'm not young enough to do sports.
- Me faltas tú. -> I miss/need you.
- Me haces falta. -> I miss/need you.
- Me faltan mis hijos. -> This may well be "I miss my children", but without context, this would rather say I'm looking for my children, who should be here and I probably don't know where they are.


"Echar de menos" is an expression normally associated with people, but it's alright being used for things and activities, so "echo de menos ser joven" is a correct sentence. However, I must say that in Mexico it's not common because for us, "echar de menos" is an expression used in more educated speech. We'd use the verb "extrañar" instead: "extraño ser joven".

- Desde que vivo en Mérida extraño a mi mamá.
- Desde que vivo en Mérida echo de menos a mi mamá.
- Desde que vivo en Mérida me hace falta mi mamá. -> The verb "to miss" is only understood in context.

- Extraño mi juventud. = Echo de menos mi juventud. -> I miss my youth.
- Me hace falta mi juventud. -> I need my youth for some purpose.
- Me falta mi juventud. -> I lack my youth.

- Extraño cantar con mis amigos. = Echo de menos cantar con mis amigos. -> I miss doing that.
- Me hace falta cantar con mis amigos. -> I need this.
- Me falta cantar con mis amigos. -> In my to-do list, I still have to sing with my friends.
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