# Best way to say "I love you very much" in Spanish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679 "2011-11-02T20:23:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/1 "2011-11-02T20:23:35Z")
I want to write a short message on the Christmas card for the young man in the Dominican Republic whom I sponsor. If I enter “I love you very much” into Babelfish, it comes back “Te quiero mucho.” If I want to double-check and enter “Te quiero mucho” Spanish to English, it comes back “I want much to you.” Huh??? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Cyningablod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/2 "2011-11-02T20:34:11Z")
“Te quiero mucho” is perfectly appropriate. It just means, ‘I love you’. It’s a bit on the non-romantic/platonic side (often used between parents and children, for example). So it would be just fine between friends or to a younger person you have a sort of paternal affection for, such as seems to be the case here. ---
**Author:** ![Cyningablod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/3 "2011-11-02T20:36:06Z")
(p.s. “Te quiero mucho” does in fact literally mean ‘I want you very much’, but that’s not the way native Spanish speakers use it or understand it in this context. Again, it’s just an idiomatic usage meaning ‘I love you’.) ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/4 "2011-11-02T20:40:15Z")
Cool! Thank you very much, **Cyningablod**! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/5 "2011-11-03T06:38:06Z")
Since the question is answered, allow me to add my own. What would be the romantic version? ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/6 "2011-11-03T06:54:35Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Since the question is answered, allow me to add my own. What would be the romantic version? The romantic version of ‘I love you’ is Te amo. The romantic version (or at least same connotation as English) of “I want you” is Te deseo. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/7 "2011-11-03T08:54:43Z")
Nobody uses “te amo” except foreigners and _cursis_. Now how to say _cursi_… a _cursi_ is someone who thinks he’s being poetic when he’s merely overwrought and angsty. Querer means both want and love. _Te quiero mucho_ (I love you a lot), _te quiero muchísimo_ (I love you an enormous lot), _te quiero más que a mi vía, más que al aire que respiro, y más que a la mare mía_ (I love you more than my own life, more than I need air to breathe, I love you more than I love my mother) From the song _Y sin embargo te quiero_ (but I love you nevertheless), by Quintero, León and Quiroga ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/8 "2011-11-03T09:03:27Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Nobody uses “te amo” except foreigners and _cursis_. Now how to say _cursi_… a _cursi_ is someone who thinks he’s being poetic when he’s merely overwrought and angsty. An [emo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo), perhaps. 😉 (More formally: The language itself is usually called ‘[purple prose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_prose)’; someone who uses it overmuch might be called a ‘[poetaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetaster)’ by someone overeducated enough to know such an obscure term. I don’t know any current word with the meaning you want.) ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/9 "2011-11-03T09:09:37Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Nobody uses “te amo” except foreigners and _cursis_. Foreigners to where? Spanish is spoken in many parts of the world. Anyway, in the area of Mexico in which I reside ‘Te Amo’ is uttered by many a local, native speaker. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/10 "2011-11-03T09:41:57Z")
Cursi = “corny” (or occasionally “cheesy”). ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/11 "2011-11-03T09:47:33Z")
“Te amo mucho” would be the romantic or very familiar version. You wouldn’t say that way of “love” to most people. Since your letter is to someone whom you’re not romantically involved, “te quiero mucho” works the best. And I second what **Crazyhorse** says. In Puerto Rico (close to the Dominican Republic), “te amo” IS used, but only by romantic couples or very close family members and/or friends (parents to a child, long-life friends). Someone sending me a letter and writing “te amo mucho” would be somewhat creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-say-i-love-you-very-much-in-spanish/601679/12 "2011-11-03T10:54:00Z")
Thans, **Derleth** and **JKellyMap**. My experience with people using amar in earnesteness has been in situations which had a lot of emotional charge, but not necessarily romantic - for example, some of my Costa Rican coworkers would say “te quiero” as a way to say “good work”, but “Dios mío, ¡te amo! Ehh… con permiso de su marido, claro…” (ohmygawd, I love you! uh, with your husband’s permission of course…) when the work was superb. Querer is simply a safer, won’t go wrong with it option.