Do you know how to say “I love you” in Español?
In English we have just the one way of saying this phrase, those three all important words “I love you”. If only it were as simple in Spanish!
There are two ways of saying or expressing that you love someone in Español, and it depends on the degree of familiarity that you have with the person as to which you use.
Let’s take the first one. The first one uses the verb Amar. Amar means to love. It’s an AR ending verb, and this is the one you use if you want to tell somebody that you love them in the sense of between lovers. We say;
Te amo – I love you
So you’d use this with your partner or your spouse in a private setting. When you translate it back it’s “you I love”. It doesn’t translate well.
The second way is with the verb querer. The verb querer means “to want”. You might think that’s a bit strange using a verb that means “to want” to tell someone that you love them and it might feel a bit strange but when you use it it means I love you;
Te quiero – I love you
The literal translation will be you I want which doesn’t really translate very well either. When you say te quiero to siblings and friends it means I love you.
You don’t use te amo with your siblings and friends you use that with your partner and your spouse in a private setting, but you can use te quiero with friends and family and it’s absolutely fine.
So there we go two ways of saying I love you in Español; te amo and te quiero. I’d love to hear how you get on practicing your Spanish, feel free to get in touch or drop me some comments below. You’ll find the video version of this lesson below and if you’d like some support learning Spanish scroll down to the bottom of this blog for lots of free resources as well as details on upcoming courses I’m running and a link on how to join my weekly Newsletter.
New to Spanish?
Download my FREE Spanish Beginners Guide https://bit.ly/3oPYcJu
Are you traveling to Spain (or further afield) with little ones? I’ve created a Spanish Scavenger Hunt Game to keep your children entertained at the airport.
It’s FREE to Download here https://bit.ly/3R3nu6i
Continue the language-learning conversation join us over in our Facebook group here: Adventures in Spanish Facebook Group
Purchase my Holiday Spanish Course here: https://adventures-in-spanish.thinkific.com/
Signed copies of my Bilingual Children’s books available here: Bilingual children’s books — Adventures in Spanish
Remember to sign up to our weekly Newsletter here and receive information on Spanish and Latin culture, free lessons and Spanish “Word of the Week” and much more straight to your inbox on a Friday 🙂 Sign up HERE
We have a range of paid for courses and classes available to suit all learning styles and abilities on our website www.adventuresinspanish.co.uk