Celebrating Valentine’s Day internationally
How to say “I love you” in various world languages
If music be the food of love… well, it’s time to get your kazoo out. Here’s a list guaranteed to help you win the heart of that special international someone.
By the way, you’ll find that many other lists of this kind that you might find on the internet attempt to confuse you by giving you ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ ways of saying ‘I love you’. This is great news if you want to come across sounding like a desperate suitor from a Jane Austen novel, or if you’re a two-timing love rat in a hurry, looking for an amorous declaration in the plural to save time[1]. Our list, however, will be sticking doggedly to two assumptions: that you’re only planning to address your declaration to one person at a time, and that you’re already on first-name terms with that person.
However, love is a many-gendered thing (at least, it is in plenty of other languages), and so the list does contain the occasional either/or option for languages which need you to specify whether you’re addressing your intentions to a male or female audience…
| Language | I love you |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 我愛你 (‘wo ai ni’) |
| Chinese (Cantonese) | 我愛你 (‘ngóh oi néih’) |
| Czech | Miluji tě |
| Danish | Jeg elsker dig |
| Dutch | Ik hou van je |
| Finnish | Minä rakastan sinua |
| French | Je t’aime |
| German | Ich liebe Dich |
| Greek | Σ΄αγαπώ (S’agapó) |
| Hebrew | (to a woman:) אני אוהב אותך (ani ohev otach) (to a man:) אני אוהבת אותך (ani ohevet otcha) |
| Hungarian | Szeretlek |
| Icelandic | Ég elska þig (‘jeg elska theg’) |
| Italian | Ti amo |
| Japanese | 愛してる (‘aishiteru’) |
| Korean | 사랑해 (‘sarang hae’) |
| Norwegian | Jeg elsker deg |
| Polish | Kocham cię |
| Portuguese | Eu te amo |
| Romanian | Te iubesc |
| Russian | я тебя люблю |
| Slovak | Ľúbim ťa |
| Spanish | Te amo |
| Swedish | Jag älskar dig |
| Thai | (to a man:) ผมรักคุณ (phom rak khun) (to a woman:) ฉันรักคุณ (chan rak khun) |
| Turkish | Seni seviyorum |
| Vietnamese | (to a man:) Em yêu anh (to a woman:) Anh yêu em |
| Welsh | Rwy’n dy garu di |
| Klingon | qamuSHa’ |
Still haven’t found the language you were looking for? Maybe it’s in here. (And even if it isn’t, you might enjoy looking anyway).
[1] After all, you may be of the opinion that if it worked for Christina Aguilera (and other famous people), it could work for you too. The legendary Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? chorus in the song ‘Lady Marmalade’ is of course just such an invitation, the ‘vous’ conveying either the formal or plural sense in French (it’s not clear which is meant in this case, but either is rather daring, don’t you think?). However – and setting grammatical nuances aside for a moment – you might want to consider this first: the Urban Dictionary suggests that the aforementioned gambit is a pick-up line usually used “by Americans on trips to Europe who aren’t used to handling any beverage with more than 0.2% alcohol”. Really, it’s your choice.
