Love in French: mon amour, mon chéri and other terms of endearment

Love in French is amour, a masculine noun, and the term of address for a loved one is mon amour (my love) [1][2]. “I love you” is je t’aime, built on the verb aimer, which Larousse translates as “to love” [13]. For Québec words see English to Quebec French, and for the sounds see French pronunciation practice and French speaking practice.

Source: the online dictionaries of Larousse and Le Robert, opened on 22 October 2026 (neither page shows a date modified), and the Usito entry for chéri, content updated 16 October 2026 [6].

What are the French terms of endearment?

These seven are the ones the dictionaries below label as terms of address or affection. The “sounds like” column is a rough English guide of ours, not from a dictionary.

What is love in French?

The French word for love is amour, a masculine noun [1]. Larousse gives it several senses: the feeling (l’amour maternel, motherly love), a lover, a love affair and lovemaking, and a term of affection [1].

Le Robert defines amour as a strong feeling that makes you want to love someone, to wish them well. It also lists the love between family members, passionate love and a loved person, with the example Mon amour [3]. If you only need the verb, it is aimer.

How do you say “I love you” in French?

“I love you” is je t’aime. It uses aimer, which Larousse translates as “to love” when the feeling is love, and as “to like, to love, to be fond of” for things you enjoy [13].

Aimer also covers affection. Le Robert’s first sense is affection, friendship or sympathy for someone, with the example Aimer ses parents, son frère, and its second is love or passion for someone [14]. Adding bien lowers the temperature: Larousse translates je l’aime bien as “I like him” and je l’aime beaucoup as “I’m very fond of him” [13].

Larousse’s own example shows the difference: je t’aime bien mais je ne suis pas amoureux de toi is “I like you but I don’t love you” [12].

How do you say “my love” in French?

“My love” in French, or in the French language, is mon amour. Larousse gives “my love” or “darling” for it [1], and calls it a way to name a loved person, “surtout dans des apostrophes”, that is, mainly when speaking to them [2]. The same phrase works in writing, as in a card.

Mon chéri and ma chérie are the other pair most dictionaries show. Larousse translates chéri in direct address as “darling, dear, honey (US)” [4]. Le Robert’s examples are Ma chérie and Oui, chéri [5]. Usito, the dictionary made at the Université de Sherbrooke, defines chéri, chérie as a noun for a term of tenderness and affection, with the example Ma chérie [6]. The forms are chéri for a man and chérie for a woman [6].

How do you say “my lover” in French?

“My lover” is mon amant (feminine amante), but the French word is narrower than the English one [15]. Le Robert marks the oldest sense, a person who loves and is loved, as old or literary. It says the usual modern sense is a person who has a romantic and sexual relationship with someone married to someone else [15].

Larousse also lists amour as “lover” [1], and chéri as a familiar word for “lover, boyfriend” (girlfriend for chérie) [4]. So the dictionaries do not give one simple word for a lover in the English sense.

Why do French terms of endearment use words for things?

Several terms of affection are also ordinary nouns. Le Robert defines trésor as precious things gathered and hidden [7], cœur as the central organ of the circulatory system [8], ange as a spiritual being between God and believers [9] and chou as a plant grown for food [11]. Each entry then lists the same word as a term of affection [7][8][9][11]. Read them as set phrases, not literal descriptions.

Lingwell is a French-learning app; you can join its waitlist.

Common mistakes

• Using amant for a partner. Le Robert’s modern sense is a lover of someone who is married to another person [15].
• Saying je t’aime and meaning “I like you”. Larousse shows je t’aime bien for that [12].
• Reading a term of affection literally. Mon chou names a plant, but the dictionary lists it as an expression of tenderness [11].
• Treating the table as a full list. It holds seven terms; the dictionaries hold more.
• Relying on a vocabulary list from a blog, including this one. Dictionary entries change. Compare each page’s own date, where it shows one, with the date at the top of this one.

See also: how to say I love you in French and goodbye in French.

See also: French quotes and sayings.

See also: family in French and French names.

Sources