Family and friendships are an important part of every culture. In English, there are many different ways to express your feelings of love and appreciation to your friends and family. Here are some of them:
In that awkward stage of not-yet-in-a-relationship but not friends either? Trying to ask your next-door neighbor out? The way you flirt with the person you like will likely impact what happens next. So, to help you be fully prepared, we’ve gathered a list of a few useful ways to say “I like you” in English:
Not quite ready to say “I love you”? We get it. Expressing how you feel about someone is not always easy! Especially if you might be afraid they don’t feel the same way.
If you’re a hopeless romantic like Romeo or Juliet, these love quotes, expressions, and verses from Shakespearean English are for you. If you're looking to get creative with your expression of affection, look no further! Here are some of the most poetic ways we could find to help you express your undying love to your bae.
Quote | Shakespeare play |
Thou art wise as thou art beautiful | A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape | A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
I would not wish any companion in the world but you | The Tempest |
I do love nothing in the world so well as you | Much Ado About Nothing |
When you depart from me sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave | Much Ado About Nothing |
Lady, as you are mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange | Much Ado About Nothing |
I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest | Much Ado About Nothing |
I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes | Much Ado About Nothing |
An angel is like you, and you are like an angel | Henry V |
I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say, ‘I love you’ | Henry V |
For where thou art, there is the world itself, With every several pleasure in the world, And where thou art not, desolation | Henry VI |
O beauty, Till now I never knew thee | Henry VIII |
I humbly do beseech of your pardon, For too much loving you | Othello |
Hear my soul speak, Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service | Twelfth Night |
I love you more than words can wield the matter | King Lear |
Did my heart love til now? Forswear it, sight. For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night | Romeo and Juliet |
My love is as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite | Romeo and Juliet |
Sweet, above thought I love thee | Troilus and Cressida |
One half of me is yours, the other half yours - Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours | The Merchant of Venice |
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate | Sonnet XVIII |
I burn, I pine, I perish | The Taming of the Shrew |
From the timeless classics to the brand new film and television, these lines from some favorite big screen and TV show actors might make you laugh, swoon, cringe or ask whose been cutting onions nearby (Severus Snape, we’re looking at you).
No matter your reaction, these lines are worthy examples of creative and unique ways to verbalize love in English – so up the ante, grab the popcorn and embrace these love quotes from movies and TV.
Love quote | Movie / Show | Quoted by |
---|
“You’re my Mariah Carey.” | Schitt’s Creek | Patrick (Noah Reid) |
"Moon of my life, My sun and stars." | Game of Thrones | Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) |
“Don't settle. You don't have to. Even at the end of the world.” | Love and Monsters | Joel (Dylan O’Brien) |
“To me, you are perfect.” | Love Actually | Mark (Andrew Lincoln) |
“You had me at hello.” | Jerry Maguire | Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) |
“I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” | 10 Things I Hate About You | Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) |
“I’m just a love letter to you, somewhere out there is the author.” | Free Guy | Guy (Ryan Reynolds) |
“You’re my air.” | Brown Sugar | Dre (Taye Diggs) |
“Some people are worth melting for.” | Frozen | Olaf (Josh Gad) |
"Can't you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that little girl on the bridge, was to bring me closer to you." | Memoirs of a Geisha | Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) |
"As you wish." | The Princess Bride | Westley (Cary Elwes) |
"It doesn’t matter if the guy is perfect or the girl is perfect, as long as they are perfect for each other." | Good Will Hunting | Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) |
“You have an absolutely breathtaking hiney.” | Anchorman | Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) |
“I love how much you pretend to love die hard.” | Brooklyn 99 | Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) |
“I got off the plane.” | Friends | Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) |
"Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with." | Juno | Mac MacGuff (J.K. Simmons) |
"So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, every day. You and me... every day." | The Notebook | Noah (Ryan Gosling) |
“I hope it’s okay if I love you forever.” | A Star is Born | Ally (Lady Gaga) |
“When something dope comes along, you gotta lock it down.” | The Good Place | Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto) |
"I know this is a far throw from a hidden paradise, but wherever you are in the world, that’s where I belong." | Crazy Rich Asians | Nick Young (Henry Golding) |
“Penny, we are made of particles that have existed since the moment the universe began. I like to think those atoms traveled 14 billion years through time and space to create us so that we could be together and make each other whole.” | The Big Bang Theory | Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) |
"Three words. Eight letters. Say it, and I'm yours." | Gossip Girl | Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) |
"You meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you. And then you meet one person and your life is changed forever." | Love and Other Drugs | Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhall) |
“I’m not a smart man… but I know what love is.” | Forrest Gump | Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) |
“I fell in love with him the way you fall asleep. Slowly, and then all at once.” | The Fault in Our Stars | Hazel (Shailene Woodley) |
"You love me. Real, or not real?" | The Hunger Games | Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) |
“Always.” | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [Part II] | Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) |
“When he looks at me, the way he looks at me. He does not know what I lack or how I am incomplete. He sees me for what I am, as I am.” | The Shape of Water | Eliza Esposito (Sally Hawkins) |
“Yeah. I don't know. I just, when I'm with you, I feel like I'm on drugs. Not that I do drugs, unless you do, in which case I do drugs all the time, but...you make me feel...I don't know. Things seem a little brighter around you or something.” | Scott Pilgrim vs. The World | Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) |
“If you find somebody you can love, you can't let that get away.” | The Wedding Singer | Sammy (Allen Covert) |
“I can survive just fine without you, you know. But there is a chance that this life can be a little less mundane with you in it." | Palm Springs | Sarah (Cristin Milioti) |
“I've been happily married for 30 years. She's the light that guides me home. Yes, it is from one of our cards. No, someone else wrote it. Doesn't make it less true.” | 500 Days of Summer | Vance (Clark Gregg) |
“But the heart's not like a box that gets filled up. It expands in size the more you love. I'm different from you. This doesn't make me love you any less. It actually makes me love you more.” | Her | Samantha (Scarlett Johannsen) |
“Come back and make up a goodbye, at least. Let’s pretend we had one.” | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) |
“The perfect song isn’t the winning song but a song that comes from the heart.” | Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga | Lars (Will Ferrell) |
“Sasha Tran, can I hold your purse for you?” | Always Be My Maybe | Marcus Kim (Randall Park) |
“I will wait for you. 5 P.M. every day at the train station.” | Slumdog Millionaire | Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) |
“Sometimes you fall for someone you didn’t expect, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy?" | How I Met Your Mother | Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) |
“I am totally butt crazy in love with Josh.” | Clueless | Cher (Alicia Silverstone) |
“It's not who you want to spend Friday night with. It's who you want to spend all day Saturday with.” | Friends With Benefits | Tommy (Woody Harrelson) |
“Love is a juice with many tastes. Some bitter, others sweet. A wine which has few vineyards.” | Poetic Justice | Justice (Janet Jackson) |
“The hardest thing is loving someone and then having the courage to let them love you back.” | The Wedding Date | Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney) |
"I just want to be friends. Plus, a little extra. Also, I love you." | The Office (US) | Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) |
"And a lot of people told me I was crazy to wait this long for a date with a girl who I worked with, but I think, even then I knew, I was waiting for my wife." | The Office (US) | Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) |
“Life is beautiful, and messy, and never goes according to plan. I do know that love, real love, is choosing each other through all of it, every single day. Beginning and middle and end.” | To all the boys: Always and forever | Lara Jean (Lana Condor) |
"You have bewitched me, body and soul." | Pride and Prejudice | Mr. Darcy (numerous adaptations, numerous actors) |
In the history of music, there have been so many songs about love. They’re all different, and some are more meaningful than others. And if you’ve read any of our blog articles, you know how much we love learning languages from songs!
This is undoubtedly one of the most popular songs about love of all time. The lyrics are straightforward, making the song easy for anyone to understand, even if you’re at a beginner level of English.
The lyrics in this song are stunning. This song talks about loving someone for who they truly are. This song is a beautiful way to let your partner know exactly how you feel about them and what makes them special to you. And it also contains a lot of practical, romantic expressions in English!
This beautiful song by Steve Wonder can help you remember different phrases to say “I love you” to someone you care about. It’s catchy, easy to sing, and its lyrics are pretty simple, so you’ll be able to understand it even if you’re not very fluent in English (yet!).
The expression of love is wonderfully diverse, and whether you're a native English speaker or not, many of us have so much choice in finding the right words when we want to express our feelings beyond the classic three words.
And speaking of love, if you cherish this article, you can find more free English vocabulary blog lessons on our learn English blog.