I Miss You = Eu Tenho Saudade de Voce

First Published: 9th of December, 2021

Did you know that the Portuguese Language has no direct equivalent for the word “miss” as in, “I miss you”? That’s right! But what they do have an equivalent for is the word “longing.”

“I miss you,” in English means the same thing as, “I have a longing for you.” That is, a longing to meet the person again, to see the person, to talk to the person, etc. But people can have a longing for other things besides other people. For example, if you travel overseas, you might develop a longing to see your country again, to taste the exquisite cuisine of your country, etc.

Usually, in English, people would say more often, for example, “I miss my country,” instead of saying, “I have a longing for my country.”

However, in Portuguese, there is no corresponding word for “miss,” so they use “saudade” which means “a longing.”

Examples:

Eu tenho saudade de voce = I miss you.

Word for word:

Eu = I

Tenho = have

Saudade = a longing

de voce = of you.

The expression, “Eu tenho saudade de voce,” translates word-for-word to English as, “I have a longing of you.” But in English, “of” wouldn’t make sense in this context, so we simply change it to “for.”

Eu tenho saudade de voce = I have a longing for you.

Nevertheless, the expression, “Eu tenho saudade de voce,” is better translated as “I miss you” since the word-for-word translation isn’t always the best. In this case, people use “I miss you” much more than “I have a longing for you,” so it is better to use “I miss you.”

Here are some more examples of the use of the word “longing” or “missing” something or someone.

I miss my home. Eu tenho saudade de minha casa.

I miss the beach. Eu tenho saudade da praia.

I miss my country. Eu tenho saudade de minha pais.

I miss my girlfriend. Eu tenho saudade da minha namorada.

I miss my uncle. Eu tenho saudade de minha tio.

He misses his father. Ele tem saudade de pai dele.

Bear in mind that the Portuguese would often omit the pronoun if it is easily understood. For example, they would say, “Tenho saudade da praia” instead of “Eu tenho saudade da praia.”