student asking question

Which is correct, "I missed you" or "I've missed you"? What's the difference between those two?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. Actually, both "I missed you" and "I've missed you" are correct; they're just used differently. "I missed you" is simple past tense. Refering either to an event that is now completely over or to a specific event/time that is now finished. Ex: I missed you when you were away." Ex: I missed you last night. "I've missed you" is present perfect tense. We use the present perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You cannot use the present perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. As a tip, remember that "to miss" has two possible meanings, due to the two uses of the verb to miss: miss as in "longing for," and miss as in "didn't see you." Also, "I miss you" and "I've missed you", when used on their own with no other time qualifiers, almost always mean "I've longed for you." If you say "I've missed you several times today" -- or add another time qualifier -- it could mean the "didn't see you" type of miss.)

Popular Q&As

04/19

Complete the expression with a quiz!