On this Valentine’s Day, learn how to say “I Love You” in the 5 Romance languages. Who knows you might impress your sweetheart more by expressing yourself this way than with flowers or chocolate.
Love in the English language is quite often overly used. “I LOVE chocolate!”, “That’s my favorite Netflix show, I LOVE it!”, “Don’t you just LOVE my new shoes?” In other languages and customers around the world, the [L] word isn’t used as freely. Many times the word is reserved for serious and meaningful relationships.
The term Romance comes from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, "in Roman", derived from Romanicus. The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (470 million), Portuguese (250 million), French (150 million), Italian (90 million), and Romanian (25 million). These languages evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries.
Learn how to say "I love you" in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian:
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Spanish |
Te amo (tay ah-moh) |
From salsa to the food, Spanish-speakers are some of the most passionate people in the world. Passion can be heard, felt and tasted throughout any of the countries that speak Spanish. Over 470 million people speak Spanish.
It’s a pretty big deal to say Te amo and you don’t say it to just anyone. The phrase “I love you” is heart-felt and sincere. Te amo is reserved for your media naranja (your other half or special someone). It is normally only used to profess romantic love. If you are looking to be a little more casual in your love, you can always use Te quiero.
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Portuguese |
Amo você (ah-moh voh-say) |
For many, Portuguese is the same language in Brazil as it is in Portugal. For native speakers, there is an acute awareness of the differences. As is the case for the Spanish culture, Portuguese speakers carry and air of passion for the unity of their cultures. Portuguese is spoken among over 250 million people across the globe.
Using Amo você is a simple way to say “I love you”. Unlike Spanish, the use of “I love you” and these phrases in particular, are not exclusively romantic. You can easily get away with using them to express your love to friends or family members. If you REALLY love someone, like L-o-o-o-o-ove someone, you can use the phrase Amo Demais (I love you so much)
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French |
(zhuh tem |
If there is one language most people know how to say I love you in, it would be French. American movie screens, budding poets, heart-felt Valentine’s Day cards are adorned with Je t’aime and could easily be the most recognizable language of love.
In a language that boasts over 100,000 words, French has just one word for both “like” and “love”. Confusing the two can be slightly confusing, and a mix up in usage can be a little akward.
But don’t worry! The French have come up with a way to distinguish between the two meanings of aimer (love or like), to place a little boundary between the two emotions. By using the word beaucoup (a lot) with Je t’aime – Je T’aime beaucoup translates to “I like you a lot”. In french, expressing your love, less is really more.
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Italian |
Ti amo (tee ah-moh) |
Whether it’s a romantic candlelight dinner with your favorite pasta dish and wine, a love poem or whispered sweet nothings, many think the phrase “I love you” is best said in Italian. In fact over 90 million worldwide express Ti amo (tee ah-moh) in Italian.
Like French and many other languages, love is not really interchangeable. If we speak about romantic love, we say “ti amo”. Ti means “you” and amo means “I love” Interestingly, Italians have 2 different ways of saying I love you. Ti amo is reserved for romantic love, so something you’d say to your romantic partner. If you are wanting to keep the love to a minimum or if you are speaking to family or close friends you can use the phrase “Ti voglio bene”, meaning “you I want well”.
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Romanian |
Te iubesc (tay yu-bay-sk) |
It’s not every day you see a blog post using translation . But as Romanian, is considered one of the lasting Romance language and it is Valentine’s day, we thought Beton (concrete = slang for “cool”)! Why not?
Romance and love can be expressed in many different ways, from sayings that show your appreciation, your admiration, and your affection for someone. There are many ways to say to someone ‘I love you’, and Romanians have developed a plethora of phrases to express their feelings. Same as ‘I love you’, ‘te iubesc’ is the common form of expressing your feelings of love for someone.
Romanian is spoken by around 24 million native speakers and around 4 million second language speakers. Romanian is the official language of Romania and the most spoken language of Moldova. It is 66% Latin-based worked and 20% Slavic-based words.