# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/21 "2013-06-04T07:10:56Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > Hindi: “Maiṁ tumasē pyāra karatā hūm̐,” or “मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ.” technically that’s correct, but the phonetic spelling would be closer to: **Meh thumsay pyaar karthaa hoon** which I like to follow with: **Puppi daayn** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/22 "2013-06-04T08:12:17Z")
In Korean: Saranghae or Sanranghaeyo if you want to be polite. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/23 "2013-06-04T08:36:47Z")
> [@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”. In **Afrikaans** , “Ek hou van jou” just has the sense of English “I like you” or maybe “I like you lots” depending on context & tone(and it would be pronounced “Eck hoe fun yo”). For “I love you” it’s “Ek het jou lief” or “Ek is lief vir jou”. Either has the same sense as “I love you”. If you wanted to be a little formal and old-fashioned, it would be “Ek bemin jou”, which carries a sense of romantic love that “lief” doesn’t. Think of it as “I am passionately in love with you”, Don Juan styley. A Lover is a “Minaar” or a “Minnares”, depending on gender. A beloved is the “Beminde” ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/24 "2013-06-04T08:57:36Z")
Catalan: T’estimo. Euskera: Maite zaitut. ---
**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, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/25 "2013-06-04T09:41:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > In **Afrikaans** , “Ek hou van jou” just has the sense of English “I like you” or maybe “I like you lots” depending on context & tone(and it would be pronounced “Eck hoe fun yo”). > > For “I love you” it’s “Ek het jou lief” or “Ek is lief vir jou”. Either has the same sense as “I love you”. > > If you wanted to be a little formal and old-fashioned, it would be “Ek bemin jou”, which carries a sense of romantic love that “lief” doesn’t. Think of it as “I am passionately in love with you”, Don Juan styley. A Lover is a “Minaar” or a “Minnares”, depending on gender. A beloved is the “Beminde” I love Afrikaans! “Ek is lief vir jou” is adorable 🙂 And it’s all so archaic to my ears, talking about “beminnen”. I’d love to learn properly some day. **Švejk** , we could go back to saying “ik bemin je” to have a proper non-compound way of saying I love you 😃 ---
**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:** [June 4, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/26 "2013-06-04T11:50:37Z")
“Wall eye knee” – Cantonese ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/27 "2013-06-04T11:59:18Z")
qamuSHa (kah-moosh-KHAH) - Klingon melon le (MEH-lone lay) - Elvish ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/28 "2013-06-04T12:01:03Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Swedish: Jag älskar dig. Pronounced “ya EL-skar dey.” Norwegian: Jeg elsker deg. (Pronounced something like: “yay EL-sker day”.) Danish: Jeg elsker dig. (Pronounced like… well, it’s Danish, so everything sounds like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo) anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/29 "2013-06-04T12:28:39Z")
Greek sagapo ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/30 "2013-06-04T15:02:22Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “Wall eye knee” – Cantonese In pinyin (Roman characters), it’s written “wo ai ni”. (The simplified characters are 我爱你. The traditional character for “ai” is a little different: 愛.) I can’t speak for Cantonese, but in Mandarin it does sound a bit like that. But if you want to get picky (and I do!), to my ears, the vowel in the first word, “wo” starts more like an “oh” than an “ah”. So if there were such a word as “woll” (rhyming with “goal” and “toll”), if you stopped just before pronouncing the “ll”, you’d have it. “Eye” and “knee” are close enough, I think. But if you want to be understood, it’s also very important to get the tones right. “Wo” (I) should drop very low at first, then rise a bit. Kind of like saying, “Really?” or “So…?” as in, “So what?” But when it’s said quickly with other words following, the rising part sometimes gets lost and it just sounds low. “Ai” (love) should start high and drop sharply. Imagine saying, “Huh!” as in “Huh! How about that!” or “Yes!” in an assertive manner. “Ni” (you), like “wo”, starts low and rises. Because of its position in the sentence, you’ll pretty much always hear the rise. So imagine two people saying, “Really?” “Yeah! So…?” and you basically have the tones for “Wo ai ni”. Also, fun fact about “ai” (love) : you can’t see this in the simplified character 爱, but in the traditional character 愛, you can see the root character is “heart”. Aww. [And apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love#Chinese_and_other_Sinic_cultures), although this literally means “I love you”, Chinese people are more likely to say “I like you” (“Wo xihuan ni”, 我喜欢你), which is “more playful and less serious”. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/31 "2013-06-04T15:16:07Z")
Well, the omniglot link already had it, but I know it, and I need to show off. Hungarian: _Szeretlek_. (Sz is just pronounced as the voiceless ‘s’, like in _sing_). I wish I knew how to sound out the Lakota Sioux phrase. That would be cool. ---
**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, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/32 "2013-06-04T16:25:35Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > 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 My husband is Malaysian; I speak only English and a very small, insignificant smattering of Malay (enough to ask simple direction, or follow the general gist of a very basic conversation just by pulling out the few words/phrases that I recognize). I learned what I needed to get by when I lived there for a year. What I actually hear people say is just a very long enunciation “sayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang” to express love. But I am pretty sure that the direct “I love you” translation is “saya cinta kamu”. I know that expresses romantic love because years ago, when I used “cinta” with my adorable nephews, they laughed hysterically (and rather uncomfortably). My husband had to explain the difference between “cinta” and “sayang”. I have Indonesian friends, and although the structure of the language is very similar, I can’t understand anything they say at all. My husband says that it is a dialect difference similar to english and pidgin. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/33 "2013-06-04T16:30:03Z")
**Te Amo** (“tay ahmo”) in Latin. Extra points for **Te Deamo** (“tay day ahmo”), which means “I love you especially” and conveys more romantic overtones. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/34 "2013-06-04T16:33:12Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Ich liebe dich: German > … If a guy said that, I’m afraid it could be misconstrued. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/35 "2013-06-04T16:49:15Z")
Обичам те “Obicham te” (Bulgarian) \>punch in the arm\< (Middle School America) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/36 "2013-06-04T16:49:18Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > **Te Amo** (“tay ahmo”) in Latin. And “ti amo” in Italian (although you could also go the [advanced route](http://italian.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/say-i-love-you-in-italian.htm)). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/37 "2013-06-05T04:16:19Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > In pinyin (Roman characters), it’s written “wo ai ni”. (The simplified characters are 我爱你. The traditional character for “ai” is a little different: 愛.) > > I can’t speak for Cantonese, but in Mandarin it does sound a bit like that. But if you want to get picky (and I do!), to my ears, the vowel in the first word, “wo” starts more like an “oh” than an “ah”. So if there were such a word as “woll” (rhyming with “goal” and “toll”), if you stopped just before pronouncing the “ll”, you’d have it. “Eye” and “knee” are close enough, I think. But if you want to be understood, it’s also very important to get the tones right. > > “Wo” (I) should drop very low at first, then rise a bit. Kind of like saying, “Really?” or “So…?” as in, “So what?” But when it’s said quickly with other words following, the rising part sometimes gets lost and it just sounds low. > > “Ai” (love) should start high and drop sharply. Imagine saying, “Huh!” as in “Huh! How about that!” or “Yes!” in an assertive manner. > > “Ni” (you), like “wo”, starts low and rises. Because of its position in the sentence, you’ll pretty much always hear the rise. > > So imagine two people saying, “Really?” “Yeah! So…?” and you basically have the tones for “Wo ai ni”. > > Also, fun fact about “ai” (love) : you can’t see this in the simplified character 爱, but in the traditional character 愛, you can see the root character is “heart”. Aww. > > [And apparently](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love#Chinese_and_other_Sinic_cultures), although this literally means “I love you”, Chinese people are more likely to say “I like you” (“Wo xihuan ni”, 我喜欢你), which is “more playful and less serious”. Yes, “Wall eye knee” sounds more like Mandarin than Cantonese. I don’t speak Cantonese, but “I love you” should sound something like “ngaw oy lek”. The interesting thing about Chinese dialects is the words are all the same, only the pronunciations are different (great idea by an emperor long ago, I say). ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/38 "2013-06-05T13:07:41Z")
Persian(Farsi) is دوست دارم , pronounced _doostat daaram_. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/39 "2013-06-05T14:32:57Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I wish I knew how to sound out the Lakota Sioux phrase. That would be cool. Don’t know the phrase you got, but my reference has it as “tecihila” and pronounces it as tay-CHEE-khee-lah. (The h should be dotted in the orthographic system used, but ASCII can’t cope with that - it’s like the guttural H in Hannukah) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082/40 "2013-06-05T15:29:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Ich liebe dich: German > Eu te amo: Portuguese > Je t’aime: French My French is only high school level, but I thought “je t’aime” was “I like you” and “je t’adore” was “I love you”. ASL is a combination of the letters I, L, and Y. Make the ‘rock and roll’ horns, then stick your thumb out to the side. |..| (thumb maybe down a little more) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-how-to-say-i-love-you-in-other-languages/660082.md?page=3)