How to Say I Love You in 100 of the World’s Most Spoken Languages

One of the coolest things about traveling the world is learning a little bit if the local language.

It’s amazing how much you can learn about a culture based on how they express themselves. There’s always an expression or a word that doesn’t exist in other languages, or seems special based on the collective mentality of that particular culture. It’s amazing to think that through all of the years, wars, and our existence as human beings – one thing remains, our method of communicating using language and our ability to love.

As Valentine’s day quickly approaches, I started to wonder, how do people say ‘I love you’ around the world? I already knew it in French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Korean, and English of course, but what about the other languages of the world?

So here it is, after hours upon hours of searching and research, this is how to say I love you in different languages – to be exact the 100 most spoken languages in the world:

Here are the languages in order of how many people speak them, how you say ‘I love you,’ and where it is spoken:

1	Mandarin	Wǒ ài nǐ	China, Taiwan, Singapore
2	Spanish	te amo, te quiero	Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Pacific islands
3	English	I love you	Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Singapore, Philippines
4	Hindi	main tumse pyar karta hoon	India, Fiji, Nepal
5	Arabic	ahabak	North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East), East Africa
6	Portuguese	eu te amo	Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste
7	Bengali	Āmi tōmāẏa bhālōbāsi	Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India), Assam (India)
8	Russian	ya lyublyu tebya	Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia
9	Japanese	watashi wa, anata o aishiteimasu	Japan
10	Punjabi	maiṁ tuhānū pi’āra karadā hāṁ	Punjab region (India, Pakistan)

The next most spoken language is German, but ‘I love you’ in auf Deutsche has several layers, and can be a lot more specific. For example, to tell someone you love for them more in an ‘I care for you’ kind of way, you would use ‘Ich habe dich gerne’.

Next is ‘Ich hab dich lieb’, which is kind of like, ‘I have love for you’ and is used for friends and family. Between lovers, ‘I love you is’ expressed as ‘Ich liebe dich.’

11	German	ich liebe dich	Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy)
12	Javanese	Aku tresna sampeyan	Java (Indonesia)
13	Wu (Shanghainese)	(ngu eh nóng) Ngu long hushin long lah	Zhejiang, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu (eastern China)
14	Malay/Indonesian	saya sayang awak	Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
15	Korean	salanghae	North Korea, South Korea
16	Telugu	nēnu ninnu prēmistunnānu	Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry (India)
17	Vietnamese	anh yêu em	Vietnam
18	French	je t’aime	Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of Ontario), France, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, French Caribbean, French Polynesia, various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
19	Marathi	mī tujhyāvara prēma karatō	Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat (India)
20	Tamil	nāṉ uṉṉai kātalikkiṟēṉ	Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (India), Puducherry (India), Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius
21	Urdu	m – (mein ap say muhabat karta hoon) & f – (mein ap say muhabat karti hoon)	India, Pakistan
22	Persian/Farsi	(asheghetam) used in poetry and songs – (dūset dāram)	Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
23	Turkish	seni seviyorum	Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria
24	Cantonese	ngóh oi néih	Guangdong (Canton), southern Guangxi (southern China), Hong Kong, Macau
25	Italian	ti amo	Italy, Switzerland, San Marino
26	Thai	P̄hm rạk khuṇ	Thailand
27	Gujarati	Huṁ tanē prēma karuṁ chu	Gujarat (India)
28	Basque	maite zaitut	Northern Spain
29	Minnan hua	wǒ ài rǔ	Fujian, eastern part of Guandong (southeastern China), Hainan (southern China), Taiwan, Malaysia
30	Polish	kocham Cię	Poland, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Belarus, western Ukraine, Lithuania
31	Pashto	(za la ta sara meena kawom)	Afghanistan, Pakistan
32	Kannada	Nānu ninnannu prītisuttēne	Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra (India)
33	Malayalam	ñān ninne snēhikkunnu	Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé (India)
34	Sundanese	abdi bogoh ka anjeun	Java (Indonesia)
35	Chamorro	Hu guiaya hao	Austronesian language spoken mainly on the island of Guam, and also in the Marianas Islands.
36	Hausa	Ina son ka	Nigeria
37	Burmese	mainnkohkyittaal	Burma
38	Oriya	mu tumoku bhala paye	Odisha (India)
39	Armenian	Yes sirum yem k’yez	Armenia Georgi and Russia
40	Ukrainian	ya tebe lyublyu	Ukraine
41	Bhojpuri	hum tohse pyaar kareni	Bihar (India)
42	Tagalog	Iniibig kita	Manila and Northern Philippines
43	Yoruba	mo nifẹ rẹ	Nigeria, Benin and Togo
44	Maithili	hawm ahāṃ se prem karechi	Bihar (India)
45	Sindhi	Man tokhe prem karyan ti or Man tokhe prem karyan to	Sindh (Pakistan and neighboring areas in India)
46	Swahili	nakupenda	Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa with about 100 million speakers, and is the national language of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Swahili is said to have originated from Arabic, among other languages. It’s possible the language came from interactions between Arabs and East Africans back in the day.

47	Uzbek	Men seni Sevaman	Uzbekistan
48	Amharic	ewedihalehu	Ethiopia
49	Fula	mi yidi ma	West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Sudan
50	Igbo	a hụrụ m gị n’anya	Nigeria
51	Oromo	Sin jaalladha’	Ethiopia and Kenya
52	Romanian	te iubesc	Romania, Moldova
53	Azerbaijani	Mən səni sevirəm	Azerbaijan and Northern Iran
54	Manipuri/Meitei	əi-nə nəng-bu nung-shi	North East India, Bangladesh, Burma
55	Chichewa	Ndimakukonda Ndimakukondani	Bantu language spoken in parts of Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique
56	Cebuano	gihigugma TIKA	Central and Southern Philippines
57	Dutch	ik hou van je	Belgium (Flanders, Brussels), Netherlands and Suriname
58	Kurdish	Ez hej te dikim	“Kurdistan”, northern Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria
59	Serbo-Croatian	Volim te	Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro
60	Malagasy	tiako ianao	Madagascar
61	Nepali	Ma timīlā’ī māyā garchu	Nepal and neighbouring areas, Sikkim, (India)
62	Saraiki	mẽ tenū̃ piār kardā hā̃	Sindh (Pakistan)
63	Santali	ing aming sibilama	India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan
64	Khmer	khnhom​ sralanh​ anak	Cambodia
65	Sinhalese	mama oyāṭa ādareyi	Sri Lanka
66	Bambara	M’bi fe	Mali Mande language with about 3 million speakers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana
67	Assamese	môi apunak bhal paû	Assam (India)
68	Madurese	Kula tresna / panjengan	Madura, and Java (Indonesia)
69	Somali	Waan ku jeclahay	Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen
70	Magahi	həm t̪oːraː seː pjaːr kərə hɪjoː/	Bihar (India)
71	Dogri	Minjo tere naal pyar hega	Kashmir Jamu (india)
72	Marwari	main tanne pyaar karoon	Rajastan (India and Pakistan)
73	Hungarian	Szeretlek	Hungary and areas in neighbouring countries
74	Chewa	ndimakukondani	Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe
75	Kinyarwanda	Ndagukunda	Kinyarwanda, a Bantu language spoken in mainly in Rwanda.
76	Greek	Se agapó	Greece, Cyprus
77	Akan/Twi	Me dor wo	Ghana, Ivory Coast
78	Khasi	ieit ieit	Meghalaya state in India by the Khasi people.
79	Kazakh	men seni jaqsı köremin	Kazakhstan
80	Tswana	Ke a go rata	Botswana
81	Hebrew	(man to a woman) – “Ani Ohev Otach” (woman to a man) – “Ani Ohevet Otcha” (woman to a woman) – “Ani Ohevet Otach” (man to a man) – “Ani Ohev Otcha”	Israel
82	Zulu	Ngiyakuthanda	South Africa
83	Czech	Miluji tě	Czech Republic
84	Kinyarwanda	ndagukunda	Rwanda
85	Kokani	hav tujo mog korta	Goa (india)
86	Haitian Creole	Mwen renmen ou	Haiti
87	Afrikaans	Ek het jou lief	South Africa
88	Ilokano	Ayayatenka, (ay-aya-ten kaw)	Northern Luzon in the Philippines
89	Quechua	Kuyayki	Peru and Bolivia
90	Kirundi	Ndagukunda	Burundi and Uganda
91	Swedish	jag älskar dig	Sweden and Finland
92	Hmong	Kuv hlub koj	Laos and neighbouring areas
93	Shona	Ndinokuda	Zimbabwe
94	Hiligaynon	Palangga ko ikaw Guina higugma ko ikaw	Western Visayas in the Philippines
95	Uyghur	(Män sızni söyümän)	Xinjiang (Western China)
96	Balochi	Tu mana doost biyeh	Balochistan (province in Pakistan and Iran)
97	Belarusian	ja ciabie kachaju	Belarus
98	Mossi	Kei te aroha au ki a koe	Burkina Faso
99	Xhosa	ndiyakuthanda	South Africa
100	Khmer	khnhom​ sralanh​ anak	Cambodia

So whether you’re telling someone je t’aime, wo ai ni, nakupenda, or I love you, you can say it in 100 different ways today.

And of course, there’s always the good old fashioned hug and kiss, though that can vary widely from region to region too!

‘Til next time we see each other, jag älskar dig!

Note: Language rankings sourced from International Phonetic Alphabet based on number of speakers, and the 13th edition of Ethnologue via David P Brown. Translations sourced from Google translate and a myriad of other sources. If you see an error here, please comment and let me know!