I miss you. Miss you a lot.

In our culture the sentences like "I miss you." or "Miss you a lot." are usually used between family members or same-sex friends. If a female says or wites "I miss you" to a male friend, it would be considered there is a sort of girlfriend-boyfriend relationship between them. What is the situation in English? If a Chinese girl writes "Miss you a lot" (in English) to, say,  an English male friend (not her boyfriend), would a native English speaker think that she is writing to her boyfriend? Or would the English male friend think, "What? Does she consider me her boyfriend now?"

Dear native speakers, please explain.

An Asian.

It depends. If someone write me that way, especially using "miss you a lot," I might think she has kind of crush on me.

Anyway, if you do not feel safe to say that to a guy, then change it another way. There are tons of ways to express friendship.

An Asian wrote:

In our culture the sentences like "I miss you." or "Miss you a lot." are usually used between family members or same-sex friends. If a female says or wites "I miss you" to a male friend, it would be considered there is a sort of girlfriend-boyfriend relationship between them. What is the situation in English? If a Chinese girl writes "Miss you a lot" (in English) to, say,  an English male friend (not her boyfriend), would a native English speaker think that she is writing to her boyfriend? Or would the English male friend think, "What? Does she consider me her boyfriend now?" Dear native speakers, please explain. An Asian.

Thanks Osee.

I can understand what Doll said. I believe the male gurus here wouldn't take her seriously when she excitedly tells them those things just because they have given her excellent answers to her questions.

However, suppose Doll is not a native teacher, teaching English in Turkey, but a 25-year-old beautiful Turkish girl, not speaking English very well. Doll worked for the 60-year-old Mister Micawber (sory, you're not that old. I just guess your age from your avatar) somehow in Japan for 3, 4 years in the past. They were very close friends, seeing each other almost everyday, going out together, having dinner together, taking care of each other when one falls sick and so forth. But they remained just friends, because of the age gap. Now Doll is in Istanbul, Mister Micawber is in Yokohama. They exchange SMS or email once in a while. Every time Doll writes "I miss you", " Miss you a lot". Doll probably doesn't mean what she writes, but would Mister Micawber (the native speaker) think she is not joking, or her English is not good enough to find some other more appropriate sentences/phrases to express herself?.

By the way, Osee, can you give some examples of how to say properly between opposite-sex friends things like "I keep thinking of you. I always remember the time we were together, and wish to see you again"..., without causing eyebrows raised?

Thanks again.

An Asian.

Your question is like "saving Mother or Father" question. It depents on you. If you do not want to make your relation with that guy towards love, using safe, sutitable and "non-flirting" language; if not, then use what you like to "flirt" -- that's one of the ways how people find lovers, right?

By the way, I am not a native speaker.

An Asian wrote:

Thanks Osee. I can understand what Doll said. I believe the male gurus here wouldn't take her seriously when she excitedly tells them those things just because they have given her excellent answers to her questions. However, suppose Doll is not a native teacher, teaching English in Turkey, but a 25-year-old beautiful Turkish girl, not speaking English very well. Doll worked for the 60-year-old Mister Micawber (sory, you're not that old. I just guess your age from your avatar) somehow in Japan for 3, 4 years in the past. They were very close friends, seeing each other almost everyday, going out together, having dinner together, taking care of each other when one falls sick and so forth. But they remained just friends, because of the age gap. Now Doll is in Istanbul, Mister Micawber is in Yokohama. They exchange SMS or email once in a while. Every time Doll writes "I miss you", " Miss you a lot". Doll probably doesn't mean what she writes, but would Mister Micawber (the native speaker) think she is not joking, or her English is not good enough to find some other more appropriate sentences/phrases to express herself?. By the way, Osee, can you give some examples of how to say properly between opposite-sex friends things like "I keep thinking of you. I always remember the time we were together, and wish to see you again"..., without causing eyebrows raised? Thanks again. An Asian.

Hello Osee, I am not a native speaker.Fortunately, our instructors saw the imminent disaster and decided to give us pragmatics lesson this year. In this lesson, we learn how to use language in real context. If I had had this lesson before, I wouldn't have told them "I love you."