Alternatives for “I Miss You”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Alexis and I’m calling from Fort Maid, Maryland.

Hi Alexis, welcome to the show.

How can we help you?

I have a question about the phrase, I miss you.

I have a friend who is working abroad for about a year and we’ve been writing letters and corresponding online and I quickly realized that I’m going to exhaust the phrase, I miss you.

And I could think of three other alternatives in Spanish and one other alternative in French.

And it occurred to me, I couldn’t really think of any other alternative in English.

You feel like you’re exhausting, I miss you, when you say it repeatedly.

Yes. So I guess I’m wondering, are there other phrases in English to say, I miss you?

Or would I just have to continue learning other languages and borrowing from that?

What a great question.

So you’re feeling like the more you say it, the more drained of meaning it becomes?

Yes.

I mean, it was really interesting because the last conversation we had,

He studied French for a little bit.

And instead of saying, I miss you, I said, you are missing from me.

And he said, you know, in French they have a phrase that it’s basically the same thing,

You are missing to me.

To my book.

Yes.

And it does a better job of expressing that lacking sentiment.

Whereas in English, it’s like, it feels lacking, really.

That’s really all I can think of.

That’s interesting. I never thought about that.

But when you say, I miss you, it’s like you’re doing something.

But if you’re saying you’re missing from me, it’s like a phantom limb or something.

Yes.

But if they are the object.

Right, right.

That sentence, literally the object.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you think of yourself as a creative writer?

I would like to.

He’s definitely much better at writing than I am.

So I figured maybe I can one-up him by calling way with words.

Well, we’ll see if we can equip you with a few ideas.

I asked about whether you consider yourself a creative writer

Because I think there’s a lot of room in a relationship

To make mistakes of emotion and not have it be a really big deal

And kind of try to put in words things that cannot be put in words

And successfully evoke to this other person who knows you very well what you meant,

Even if you didn’t get 100% of the way there.

That’s a nice thing about a relationship.

A lot of things are smoothed over and forgiven

Because of what you know about each other that cannot be expressed in words.

Are you talking about writing or talking?

A little bit of both because I did realize that when I’m writing the letter,

I sound differently.

A little more poetic, actually.

Whereas if we’re just chatting on Messenger, it’s automatic.

It’s just I miss you because, I don’t know, I need a little more time to be more creative.

Right.

I’ll tell you one of my favorite lines that expresses missing somebody.

And this is from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

And it is, I wonder how much of the day I spend just calling after you.

And it is, she is calling for somebody who’s not present, who’s literally missing from her life and just turning to them when they’re not at their shoulder like they used to always be.

I like that.

That’s beautiful.

Great lines from literature, yeah.

Well, Alexis, how about if we ask all of your fellow listeners out there?

Because I’m sure that they’ve dealt with the same problem, many of them.

That would be great.

What’s the way, when you’re in a long-distance relationship or you’ve been away for a long time from someone that you love,

How did you tell them that you missed them or loved them in a way that felt fresh and new and wasn’t sapped of all meaning?

Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org.

Alexis, thank you so much for this thoughtful call.

We really appreciate it, and I hope you find a way to get back together with this person.

I’m going to have to work on it, that’s for sure.

It’ll be an assignment.

All right.

Good luck.

Take care.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

Have a good one.

Bye-bye.

You too.