I love you in French: je t’aime and the words around it

I love you in French is je t’aime [1][3]. This page covers how to say it, how a small word changes its strength, and the other French words for “I love you”. For pet names after the declaration see French terms of endearment, and for the sounds see French pronunciation practice and French speaking practice.

Source: the online dictionaries of Larousse and Le Robert, opened on 23 October 2026. Neither page shows a date modified.

How do you say I love you in French?

You say je t’aime (zhuh TEM). It is built from the verb aimer, which Larousse translates as “to love” when the feeling is love [1]. Le Robert’s second sense of aimer is to feel love or passion for someone [2].

Je is “I”, t’ is “you” and aime is the verb. The word order is “I you love”. Larousse has no headword for the whole sentence, so the build-up above comes from the aimer entries.

The “sounds like” column is a rough English guide of ours, not from a dictionary.

How to say I love you in French to a friend or family member?

Add a small word. Le Robert’s first sense of aimer is affection, friendship or sympathy for someone, with the example Aimer ses parents, son frère (to love your parents, your brother) [2]. It then notes that an adverb, as in Je l’aime bien or Un ami que j’aime beaucoup, marks this sense apart from love [2].

Larousse agrees: je l’aime bien is “I like him” and je l’aime beaucoup is “I’m very fond of him” [1]. For “I like you but I don’t love you” it gives je t’aime bien mais je ne suis pas amoureux de toi [3].

Read this next to the blogs you may have seen. Some say je t’aime is only for romance, and others say it works for friends and family. The dictionaries do not settle it with a single rule. They show that aimer covers both affection and love, and that the adverb is what tells them apart [1][2]. So listen to who says it to whom.

What are the French words for I love you?

The French words for “I love you” start with the verb aimer. These are the ones the dictionaries below support.

Adorer is stronger than aimer bien, but the dictionary does not label je t’adore as a declaration of love. It gives adorer as a verb for a passionate love or affection, and also for a strong taste for something [4]. That is why blogs disagree about it. If you are unsure, je t’aime is the entry the dictionaries build on.

Common mistakes

• Saying je t’aime bien and meaning “I love you”. Larousse gives je t’aime bien as “I like you” [3].
• Thinking aimer only means romance. Le Robert lists affection for a brother or parents as the first sense [2].
• Mixing up the gendered forms. Amoureux is the masculine form and amoureuse the feminine [5].
• Treating adorer as a fixed phrase for love. The dictionary also uses it for a strong taste for things [4].
• Relying on a 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: French quotes and sayings.

See also: feelings in French.

Sources