Echo de menos mi pueblo natal cuando estoy lejos.

Yes. Echo is the first-person singular present form of echar:

• yo echo = I miss / I throw / I put, depending on context
• tú echas
• él/ella echa

In this sentence, echo de menos is a fixed expression meaning I miss.

A very common learner confusion is echo vs hecho:

• echo = from echar
• hecho = past participle of hacer, meaning done / made

So here it is definitely echo, not hecho.

Yes. In Spain, echar de menos is one of the most natural and common ways to say to miss someone or something.

So:

• Echo de menos a mi familia = I miss my family
• Echo de menos mi pueblo natal = I miss my hometown

In many parts of Latin America, extrañar is also very common:

• Extraño a mi familia

In Spain, people understand extrañar, but echar de menos often sounds more natural in everyday speech.

No. You normally need the full expression echar de menos.

It works as a fixed idiom, so learners should treat it as one chunk:

• echar de menos = to miss

You should not normally shorten it to echo menos.

Think of it like learning a phrasal verb in English: the individual words do not fully explain the meaning, so it is best memorized as one expression.

Yes, echar often does mean things like to throw, to pour, to put, or to cast, depending on context. But in echar de menos, it becomes an idiomatic expression.

Examples of other meanings of echar:

• Echar agua = to pour water
• Echar la sal = to add the salt
• Echar a alguien = to throw someone out / fire someone

But:

• echar de menos = to miss

So this is one of those cases where you should not translate word by word.

Pueblo can mean village, small town, or sometimes simply the town someone comes from, depending on context.

In this sentence, mi pueblo natal means something like:

• my hometown
• more literally, my birth town / native town

Even if English uses hometown, Spanish may still use pueblo if the place is a town or small place.

If the speaker were from a city, they might say:

• mi ciudad natal = my native city / hometown

So pueblo natal is perfectly natural if the speaker is talking about the town they come from.

In Spanish, adjectives often come after the noun, especially when they are descriptive or classifying.

So:

• pueblo natal = native town / hometown

This is the normal order. Putting natal before the noun would sound unusual here.

This is a good general pattern to remember:

• casa grande
• ciudad antigua
• pueblo natal

Because lejos describes a state or location, not an essential identity.

Spanish usually uses estar for location or temporary state:

• estoy lejos = I am far away
• estoy en Madrid = I am in Madrid

Using ser here would be incorrect.

A useful rule of thumb:

• ser = what something is
• estar = where something is or how it is at the moment

Here, being far away is a situation, so estar is the right verb.

The present tense works because the sentence expresses a general or repeated feeling:

• Echo de menos mi pueblo natal cuando estoy lejos = I miss my hometown when I am away

It means this is what happens whenever the speaker is away. It is not necessarily about one specific past moment.

Spanish, like English, often uses the present tense for habits, general truths, and regular emotional reactions.

Because Spanish usually drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

• Echo already tells us the subject is yo
• Estoy also matches yo

So Yo echo de menos mi pueblo natal cuando estoy lejos is grammatically correct, but the yo is unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

For example:

• Yo echo de menos mi pueblo natal, pero mi hermano no
  Here yo adds contrast.

Both ideas are possible, but they are slightly different.

In your sentence:

• cuando estoy lejos = when I am away / when I am far away

This is more general. The speaker does not need to repeat from my hometown because it is already understood from the context.

You could also say:

• cuando estoy lejos de mi pueblo natal

That is more explicit: when I am far from my hometown.

So the short version sounds natural because the sentence already tells us what the speaker misses.

Yes, absolutely. That version is very natural too:

• Cuando estoy lejos, echo de menos mi pueblo natal

Spanish allows this kind of flexibility. The meaning stays the same. The difference is mostly about focus and rhythm:

• Echo de menos mi pueblo natal cuando estoy lejos
  starts with the main feeling: I miss my hometown
• Cuando estoy lejos, echo de menos mi pueblo natal
  starts with the situation: when I am away

Both are correct and idiomatic.

Not here, because the thing being missed is mi pueblo natal, which is a place used as a direct object without the personal a.

Compare:

• Echo de menos mi pueblo natal = I miss my hometown
• Echo de menos a mi madre = I miss my mother

The personal a is used with specific people, and sometimes with pets or personified beings, but not normally with places or things.

The original sentence is already correct and natural. But depending on tone, a speaker might also say:

• Echo mucho de menos mi pueblo natal cuando estoy lejos = I really miss my hometown when I’m away
• Cuando estoy lejos, echo mucho de menos mi pueblo = When I’m away, I really miss my hometown
• Echo de menos mi pueblo cuando estoy fuera = I miss my hometown when I’m away / out of town

A small note: in natural conversation, people often say simply mi pueblo instead of mi pueblo natal, because the idea is already obvious from context. Pueblo natal sounds a bit more explicit or slightly more formal.