Love is a beautiful feeling that extends throughout all of humanity. We use the word "love" in daily conversation constantly, but do you know all the ways to express yourself when it comes to love?
It may seem English doesn’t have as many expressions to say “I love you” as, let’s say, French or Spanish, which are considered two of the most romantic languages in the world. However, there are more ways to express love in English than you may expect! That’s because there are many different situations that call for different ways to say those three little words.
So, to help you do that, we’ve prepared a (long) list of ways to say I love you in English. Ready? Let there be love!
Why learn how to say I love you in English?
Some people have no trouble expressing their feelings. For others, saying “I love you” doesn’t come easily. But no matter which one you are, knowing how to express your love for someone is important.
Here are a few reasons why:
It will help you express your feelings more fluently
Whether you’re falling in love, already deeply in love with someone, or want to express your feelings of love to your parents or friends, you may need different ways to say it.
Without a doubt, knowing how to say I love you in English will help you express your feelings more accurately and fluently.
You never know when you might meet your soulmate
Maybe you’re one of the lucky people who have already met their soulmates. Or, maybe you’ll meet them in the future. Either way, it’s important to be able to express how you feel about them! And even if you don’t believe in soulmates, there’s someone out there you care about.
It will help you express your appreciation of your close ones
Saying “I love you” isn’t reserved just for your romantic partner. You can also say it to your friends, family, or even your pup. A platonic “I love you” can mean many different things. It can mean that you appreciate them, love their company, or care about them.
Ways to say I love you in English
In English, "I love you" is the most common phrase used to express your feeling of love. It is a short sentence, but it is very powerful. We usually say it to our romantic partner or someone we’re in love with. However, it can also be used platonically, for example, to your mum or your best friend.
But, saying these three words may not always be appropriate, or you may not be ready to say them yet. So, other expressions beyond the standard “I love you” can come in handy in some situations.
Here are some ways to say I love you in English in different situations.
To a boyfriend, girlfriend, and/or romantic love
Maybe you’re happily in love with someone you really care about and feel like shouting it from the rooftops. Or, perhaps you’re at the point where you want to express your feelings for someone, but you’re not really sure how.
Either way, here are a few ways to say “I love you” to your bae to help you express your feelings.
- I love you
- I love so much
- I love you a lot
- I love you too
- I love you forever
- I love you unconditionally
- I love you to the moon and back
- I love you with all my heart
- I love you more than life itself
- I love you more than anything
- I love you more than I love myself
- I love you from the bottom of my heart
- I love you from the bottom of my soul
- I love you more than any word can say
- I’m nothing without you
- I’m lost without you
- I have feelings for you
- I’m crazy about you
- I’m head over heels for you
- I’m head over heels in love with you
- I adore you
- I’ve fallen for you
- I’m falling in love with you
- I’m in love with you
- I’m yours
- You fill my heart
- You’re the love of my life
- I can’t live without you
- I need you
- I care about you
- You’re my everything
- You’re the one for me
- You’re my one and only
- You’re my sunshine
- You rock my world
- I want to spend my life with you
- You mean so much to me
- I’ve got a crush on you
- You’re the light of my life.
- I will always love you
- I’m mad about you
- I’m nuts about you
- I cherish you
- You’re my angel
- You stole my heart
- You give me wings to fly
- You mean the world to me
- You mean so much to me
- I’m fond of you
- You make my heart skip a beat
- There isn't a word in the dictionary for how much I love you
- My heart is where you are
- It's so easy to love you
- I'm so lucky to have you by my side
- My heart is yours forever
- I love you more each day
- I love you more than coffee, and that's saying a lot.
- I’m head over heels for you.
- Te amo (Spanish)
To a friend, family member, or platonic love
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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:
- You’re my best friend
- I love you, mum/dad/grandma/grandpa
- You always make my day brighter
- You put a smile on my face
- I love you as a friend
- I love your company
- I love you guys
- I love you, you’re the best!
- You are one of my dearest friends
- I miss you!
- I’m so grateful to have you as a friend
- I couldn't have asked for a better friend/mum/dad
- You’re the best mum/dad/brother/friend in the world!
- Ain’t nothing better than a bestie like you!
- Thanks for being my best friend!
- Thanks for being the best mum/dad/brother/sister!
- You’re my favorite human on this planet!
How to say I like you in English
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:
- I like you
- I really like you
- I like you a lot
- Will you go out with me?
- Can I take you out?
- Would you have dinner with me?
- I’d love to go out with you
- I’d love to go on a date with you
- I’d like to take you out on a date
- You’re cute/handsome/beautiful
- You look handsome/beautiful
- I like your smile/eyes/something else
- I like everything about you
- I’m really having fun with you
- I enjoy being around you
- I love your company
- I love the way you smile
- I find you attractive
- You’re lovely
- I can’t stop thinking about you
- I'm completely smitten with you
- I've had a crush on you since the first time I saw you
- You're my kind of weird
Cute ways to say I love 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.
So, breaking the ice with a cute and funny way to say I love you in English might just be the right solution! Here are a few expressions that you might find helpful (they sound really cute in a text message, too):
- I love you so matcha
- You’re the LOL to my OMG
- You’re the peanut butter to my jelly
- You're the peanut to my butter
- You’re the crayons to my coloring book
- You’re the guacamole to my taco
- You guac my world
- We fit together like puzzle pieces
- I love you from your toes to your nose to where your hair grows!
- I’ve fallen for you… and I can’t get up
- We go together like biscuits and gravy
- My heart is full of emotional emojis right now
- I love you more than chocolate, pumpkin spice lattes, and sweatpants combined
- You're my favorite person to fall asleep next to
- I love you more than pumpkin pie
- I love you more than coffee, and that's saying a lot
- I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck
Ways to say I love you in Shakespearean English
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 |
Love quotes from movies and television
Cheesy or heart-melting? You be the judge!
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) |
Say “I love you” with these romantic love songs in English
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!
It’s a fun way to make new vocabulary stick in your head. So, here are a few of our favorite love songs in English:
All You Need Is Love by The Beatles
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.
All of Me by John Legend
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!
I Just Called to Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder
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!).
Three little words, countless ways to say it
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.
We hope that this extensive list of different ways to say I love you in English will help you find the right words to express your feelings for the one you love and cherish.
And speaking of love, if you cherish this article, you can find more free English vocabulary blog lessons on our learn English blog.
