Ways to Say "I Love You"

This is a response to a recent request I received wanting to know how to say "I love you" in Spanish. In English, we only have the one way to say "I love you" and that's it. Now with Spanish being a romance language, you better believe there is more than one way to express it.

Te quiero.

Te amo.

Both of the above sentences reflect "I love you" in Spanish. There are differences as to which one you would use. It often depends on which region or country you are saying it and to whom you are saying it.

Typically, the most common way is te quiero. You would use it with family, friends, lovers, and significant others.In some places, this is the standard way to say "I love you." Let's take a moment to dissect this sentence so you have a better understanding of its meaning. Te is an indirect object pronoun. It replaces the actual person you refer to in the sentence without actually having to say their name. It literally means "to you" in the informal and familiar sense. Quiero is the conjugated verb meaning to love, to want. It is in the first person or the Yo form which means "I." The literal translation is "To you I love." If you want to express "a lot" to the person of your affection, you would add the word "mucho" at the end to say "te quiero mucho." If you want to hear what this sounds like in Spanish, click here to access or download the FREE MP3 file.

The other sentence, te amo, has a little more fire power than the previous one. It contains more passion or lust for the other person. This is why you often will hear it used in telenovelas, some TV shows in general, and in movies. There are different regions that will distinguish the two different sentences and use te amo for only their spouses, lovers or significant others. Again if you use this sentence in certain parts of the world, people will think you are being melodramatic or "over the top" with your expression. Like the previous sentence, te is the indirect object pronoun replacing the person to whom you are referring. Amo is the verb that mean to love and is in the first person (Yo) form representing "I." If you wish to turn up the heat and mean "a lot," you can tack on the word "mucho" at the end. This sentence would be "te amo mucho." If you would like to hear what this sounds like in Spanish, click here to access or download the FREE MP3 file.

If you wish to turn it down a notch or two and want to express that you "like" someone, you could use the following sentences:

Me gustas.

Me encantas.

Me gustas literally means "I like you" or "You please me." Whereas me encantas is a stronger "like" than gustar. It means "You enchant me." School children and young adults may use these sentences when referring to crushes they have. Like the previous sentences, you can say "a lot" by adding "mucho" to end of the sentence: Me gustas mucho. Me encantas mucho. If you would like to hear what these sentences sound like, just click here to access or download the FREE MP3 file.

There is just the one MP3 file which you may download for free to practice using your MP3 player or computer. You will hear each sentence at a comfortable speed twice followed by the same sentence adding the word "mucho" twice. Then you will hear the same sentence with the word "mucho" at a much slower rate twice. Try to practice and emulate the sounds you hear. To download it, right mouse click on the link and select Save Link As. Then specify where you want to save the file. Share this blog with all your friends! I would much appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Be sure to tell the one you love (or like) that you love (or like) them in Spanish today!

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith