"Falto" and "Faltan"

Question

So the word is "faltar" which means to lack and why does both "yo falto" and "me faltan" mean "I lack"? I understand it's something to do with "me", so how do you use "me"? What is the difference between "yo" and "me" and what are the different ways to use them? Thank you in advance!

Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Nov 25, 2014

Answer 1

OK, I am going to write a couple of phrases to illustrate usage. Please translate them to English, and see what you get.

(Yo) falto al trabajo todo los días lunes.

(Yo) hago falta todos los días lunes en el trabajo.

Falta más trabajo todos los días lunes en mi trabajo, por eso (yo) no voy a trabajar en esos días.

Ready, set, GO.............

Edit ; Placed Yo between parenthesis.

tomorrow I will correct etc. 11-25-14 7:45pm, please look at the dictionary for meaning of falta/faltar

Nice example of how to actually use "yo falto" properly. :) - bosquederoble, Nov 25, 2014

:) - chileno, Nov 26, 2014

Answer 2

To simplify

Faltar works like gustar:

It does not mean to lack something, it means something is lacking:

Me falta algo= something is lacking for me

Me faltan muchas cosas= many things are lacking for me

Yo falto a alguien- means I am lacking for the purpose of someone else (I’m missing to them). The alguien lacks me, I don't lack them.

Of course:

Me faltó algo= I lacked something (something lacked for me)- but faltó is conjugated here to algo.

So if you look at Chileno’s first sentence:

(Yo) falto al trabajo todo los días lunes.

The job is lacking me on Mondays.—Ie I am not at work on Monday- not that I lack work to do on Mondays. At least if I understand the sentence correctly.

So my attempt:

Me falta un trabajo- A job is lacking for me, I lack work.

Falto al trabajo- I am lacking to the workplace, I am not there.

I believe "lunes" is "Monday." (I know because i love "Mardi Gras" = "Fat Tuesday.") ;-) - Winkfish, Nov 25, 2014

Yes, I agree with dat. :) - rac1, Nov 25, 2014

Oh, yea, I'll fix that, I think I put Tuesday because today is Tuesday and I wish I wasn't at work. - bosquederoble, Nov 25, 2014

Freudian slip. - bosquederoble, Nov 25, 2014

Answer 3

"yo" is the first person singular subject pronoun, in English: "I". (nominative)

The list goes:

1s - yo (I)

2s - tú (you-informal)

3s - él (he), ella (she), usted (you-formal)

1p - nosotros (we-including at least one male), nosotras (we - all female)

2p - vosotros (you informal plural-including at least one male), vosotras (you informal plural - all female)

3p - ellos (they-including at least one male), ellas (they plural - all female), ustedes (you formal plural)

"me" is the first person singular (direct accusative or indirect dative) object pronoun, in English: "me". It is placed before finite ( = conjugated) verbs, such as faltar, importar, gustar, parecer, alegrar, imaginar.. and many more

The list goes: (direct unless explicitly called indirect)

1s - me (me)

2s - te (you-informal)

3s - lo(him), la(her), le(him/her indirect + you-formal direct & indirect)

1p - nos (us)

2p - os (you(plural informal))

3p - los (them, at least 1 male), las (them, all female), les (them indirect + you-formal direct & indirect plural)

I'll leave explaining the use of 'faltar' to the higher-ups for now, I tried, using this post as a starting point, but it's more complicated than I realised. Excellent question, I got my fingers crossed for a good follow-up! - Suzanne_Romijnders, Nov 25, 2014

Read my edit please. :) - chileno, Nov 25, 2014