# Teach Me How To Say "I Love You" In Other Languages **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082 "2013-06-03T23:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/1 "2013-06-03T23:58:00Z")
I already know Japanese- Aishi teru Spanish- Te amo Russian- Ya lublu tibya But, I want to know many many more ways. Before anybody asks, I don’t want to use Google translate or a similar service. They just don’t work that well. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/2 "2013-06-04T00:01:45Z")
Hindi: “Maiṁ tumasē pyāra karatā hūm̐,” or “मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ.” Alright, I admit I got that from Google Translate but that’s only for the spelling of it (as I can only speak and understand Hindi, not read or write it ). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/3 "2013-06-04T00:02:24Z")
Ich liebe dich: German Eu te amo: Portuguese Je t’aime: French ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/4 "2013-06-04T00:19:52Z")
In Dutch: Ik hou(d) van je/jou. - Yeah, weird language, Dutch. Just pick whichever you want to use, it doesn’t matter or change the meaning much. Pronounced “Ick how fon yeh”. There is a really nice Dutch word related to the subject of love: “lief”. It’s pronounced “leaf” and is the equivalent of the German “lieb”. It means something like nice, or sweet, but… different. It’s a nicer word. You can say “that’s _lief_ of you”, or “you are so _lief_” or “he is a _lief_ guy”. If you’re feeling dramatic you can say “Ik heb je lief” for “I love you”. You can call your sweetheart “liefie”. It’s a great word and the sound is just right for the meaning. 🙂 In Romanian: Te iubesc. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/5 "2013-06-04T02:41:37Z")
Fulfulde (spoken across West Africa): Mi yiddi ma Fulfulde gets a lot of mileage out of words, so “yiddi” encompasses “like,” “love,” “want,” and “need.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/6 "2013-06-04T03:19:43Z")
Swedish: Jag älskar dig. Pronounced “ya EL-skar dey.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/7 "2013-06-04T03:23:06Z")
Irish (Gaelic): Is grá liom thú. Pron. “Iss graw lum who” ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/8 "2013-06-04T03:26:38Z")
[Omniglot.](http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/iloveyou.htm) Done. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![snuffleupagus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@snuffleupagus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snuffleupagus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/9 "2013-06-04T03:35:08Z")
Arabic: ana bahebak (I think the ‘ana’ (I) may not be necessary) ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/10 "2013-06-04T03:51:05Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Japanese- Aishi teru 愛している would normally be written in the Latin alphabet as one word “Aishiteru”. It has two parts: 愛 (ai), being the noun for “love”, and している (shiteru), being a form of the verb “suru”, which means “to do”. It doesn’t make sense to split “shiteru” between two words. (And the subject translated as “I” and the object translated as “you” are left out – Japanese often leaves out words that can be understood from the context.) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/11 "2013-06-04T03:57:52Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > 愛している would normally be written in the Latin alphabet as one word “Aishiteru”. It has two parts: 愛 (ai), being the noun for “love”, and している (shiteru), being a form of the verb “suru”, which means “to do”. It doesn’t make sense to split “shiteru” between two words. > > (And the subject translated as “I” and the object translated as “you” are left out – Japanese often leaves out words that can be understood from the context.) That was my error. A friend told me how to say I love you in Japanese face to face. I got the pronunciation right but forgot to ask about the transliteration. To everybody- Thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/12 "2013-06-04T03:58:46Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > 愛している would normally be written in the Latin alphabet as one word “Aishiteru”. It has two parts: 愛 (ai), being the noun for “love”, and している (shiteru), being a form of the verb “suru”, which means “to do”. It doesn’t make sense to split “shiteru” between two words. > > (And the subject translated as “I” and the object translated as “you” are left out – Japanese often leaves out words that can be understood from the context.) In my experience (which is somewhat limited, admittedly), 好き（だ）suki (da), is more common anyway. ETA: My Japanese tutor agrees, aishteru is somewhat uncommon, suki is usually used. At least in his dialect (Tokyo). ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/13 "2013-06-04T04:08:50Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > In Dutch: Ik hou(d) van je/jou. - Yeah, weird language, Dutch. Just pick whichever you want to use, it doesn’t matter or change the meaning much. Pronounced “Ick how fon yeh”. The weird thing is not that 1) you can omit the final -d in _houd_, which is often not pronounced, or 2) that there’s stressed and unstressed forms of personal pronouns, or even 3) that such differences are encoded in the spelling. The weirdest thing about Dutch here is that there’s no non-compound verb similar to ‘to love’. What we say is a phrasal verb, something like “I hold of you”. The same is true for ‘to like’ - when we like something on facebook, we ‘find it nice/fun’ (_ik vind het leuk_) - but the verb ‘to like’ has no direct equivalent in Dutch. For the thread: Czech - _miluju tě_. ---
**Author:** ![Tracijo67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@Tracijo67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracijo67)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/14 "2013-06-04T04:16:38Z")
Malay: saya cinta kamu (romantic love) or saya sayang kamu (affectionate love, as a mother to her child) ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/15 "2013-06-04T04:35:26Z")
For Thai, **RickG** ’s link shows ผมรักคุณ (phom rak khun) - man talking ฉันรักคุณ (chan rak khun) - woman talking An English-speaking layman unfamiliar with phonetic transcription might get a closer pronunciation with the transliterations pom ruk koon chun ruk koon Substitute เธอ (tur) for koon to suggest affection or intimacy. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/16 "2013-06-04T06:17:59Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > In my experience (which is somewhat limited, admittedly), 好き（だ）suki (da), is more common anyway. > > ETA: My Japanese tutor agrees, aishteru is somewhat uncommon, suki is usually used. At least in his dialect (Tokyo). He also says that 守りたい (mamoritai) – literally “I want to protect you” – is often used to mean “I love you” from a boy to a girl. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/17 "2013-06-04T06:34:14Z")
[Obligatory.](http://youtu.be/JzNLUaGtaCU) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/18 "2013-06-04T06:42:12Z")
Most of the ones I know have already been mentioned… One left, Slovenian: Ljubim te. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/19 "2013-06-04T07:02:11Z")
Finnish–rakastan sinua (RAH kah stahn SEE noo ah) ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/20 "2013-06-04T07:10:24Z")
> [@Tracijo67](#): > > Malay: saya cinta kamu (romantic love) or saya sayang kamu (affectionate love, as a mother to her child) In theory Indonesian and Malaysian should be about the same, but I’m always surprised at the different word choices - I can’t imagine anyone Indonesian using “saya” in the case of romantic love. Anyway, there is more than one way to say it in Indonesian but a common one (as evidenced by its frequent use in Indonesian pop songs) is: aku mencintaimu [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082.md?page=2)