How to Say I Love You in French (20 Ways)

Most people know that je t'aime means I love you in French. What they do not know is how easily it goes wrong. In class, I hear the same well-meant mistake every Valentine's season: a student wants to sound extra loving and writes je t'aime beaucoup in a card. To a French ear, that sounds like "I'm very fond of you." Kind, but not love.

This page shows you how to say I love you in French at every level, from a first crush to a twenty-year marriage. You get 20 French love phrases with pronunciation hints, the bien/beaucoup trap explained once and for all, how to answer, the pet names French couples really use, and what changes in Québec.

How to say I love you in French: je t'aime

The phrase is je t'aime, pronounced zhuh TEM.

It breaks down into three words:

• je = I
• t' = you (the pronoun te, which loses its e before a vowel)
• aime = love, from the verb aimer

Notice the word order: French puts the object pronoun before the verb. Literally, you say "I you love." If pronoun placement is still shaky for you, our guide to French pronouns explains why te, le and lui all sit in front of the verb.

Two pronunciation points matter:

• The final e of aime is silent. The word ends on an m sound: TEM, never tem-uh or tem-ay.
• The j of je is soft, like the s in pleasure. Not the j of jam.

Je t'aime or je vous aime?

French has two words for you. Tu (and its object form te) is for one person you are close to. Vous is formal, or plural.

In real life, you will say je t'aime almost every time. Je vous aime mostly appears when a parent writes to all the children together, or in classic novels and films.

Tip from class: to stop your mouth from adding a sound after aime, I ask students to say je t'aime and close their lips on the m like you would after "hmm." No vowel escapes.

The bien and beaucoup trap

This is the most important thing on this page. With most things, aimer means to like: j'aime le chocolat is "I like chocolate," and j'aime bien danser is "I quite like dancing." With a person, plain aimer means to love, and it is the strongest form.

So anything you add to je t'aime tends to make it weaker, not stronger:

My memory trick: in French, love is naked. Je t'aime alone is the full declaration. Dress it up with bien or beaucoup and you send it back to the friend zone. If you want to add intensity, use the expressions in the next section instead.

20 ways to say I love you in French

Here are 20 French love phrases, grouped from tender to intense. Each comes with its meaning and a simple pronunciation hint.

Saying I love you

1. Je t'aime (zhuh TEM): I love you.
2. Je t'aime aussi (zhuh tem oh-SEE): I love you too.
3. Je t'aime tellement (zhuh tem tel-MAHN): I love you so much.
4. Je t'aime à la folie (zhuh tem ah lah foh-LEE): I love you madly.
5. Je t'aime de tout mon cœur (zhuh tem duh too mohn KUR): I love you with all my heart.
6. Je t'aimerai toujours (zhuh tem-RAY too-ZHOOR): I will always love you.

Being in love

1. Je suis amoureux de toi (zhuh swee ah-moo-RUH duh twah): I'm in love with you, said by a man.
2. Je suis amoureuse de toi (zhuh swee ah-moo-RUHZ duh twah): I'm in love with you, said by a woman.
3. Je suis fou de toi / folle de toi (zhuh swee FOO / FOHL duh twah): I'm crazy about you.
4. Je suis tombé(e) amoureux / amoureuse de toi (zhuh swee tohm-BAY…): I fell in love with you.
5. Tu es l'amour de ma vie (tu ay lah-MOOR duh mah VEE): You are the love of my life.

Notice that amoureux and fou change with the speaker. They are adjectives describing you, so they agree with your gender. Our page on French adjective agreement covers the pattern.

Early days and crushes

1. Tu me plais (tu muh PLAY): I'm attracted to you, I like you (romantically).
2. Je t'adore (zhuh tah-DOR): I adore you. Warm and light; also common between friends.
3. Tu me manques (tu muh MAHNK): I miss you.
4. Je pense à toi (zhuh pahns ah TWAH): I'm thinking of you.
5. Je veux être avec toi (zhuh vuh ET-ruh ah-vek twah): I want to be with you.

Tu me manques deserves a warning: the French sentence is built backward. Literally it says "you are missing to me," so the person you miss is the subject. Je te manque means "you miss me."

Long-term love

1. Je tiens à toi (zhuh tyan ah TWAH): You mean a lot to me, I care about you.
2. Tu es tout pour moi (tu ay too poor MWAH): You are everything to me.
3. On s'aime (ohn SEM): We love each other.
4. Veux-tu m'épouser? (vuh tu may-poo-ZAY): Will you marry me?

On s'aime uses a reflexive pronoun to mean "each other." If that structure is new to you, see how French reflexive verbs work.

How to answer je t'aime

Someone says je t'aime. Here is what to say back:

Avoid moi non plus. It means "me neither" and only answers a negative sentence like je n'aime pas le froid. Replying moi non plus to je t'aime is a mistake I hear more often than you would think, and it lands badly.

French terms of endearment

French couples rarely use first names when they speak to each other. They use pet names:

Two details trip up learners. Mon amour stays masculine even when you say it to a woman, because amour is a masculine noun: never ma amour. And chéri is written chérie for a woman, though you hear no difference in speech.

I love you in Québec: chum and blonde

If you live in Canada or date someone from Québec, you will hear vocabulary that textbooks from France leave out.

In informal Québec French, a boyfriend is often mon chum (pronounced tchum) and a girlfriend is ma blonde, whatever her hair color. Chum can also mean a male friend, so context decides.

Both are informal. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) lists chum as a discouraged borrowing from English and recommends amoureux, petit ami, copain, compagnon or conjoint instead.

My advice for learners in Canada: understand chum and blonde when you hear them, and say mon copain or ma copine yourself. Those work in Montréal and in Paris. The good news is that je t'aime is identical everywhere.

Saying I love you to family and friends

Je t'aime is not only for couples. French parents say je t'aime to their children every day, and adult children say it back: je t'aime, maman, je t'aime, papa.

With friends, the French are more careful. Je t'aime between friends exists, but je t'adore or je t'aime fort (I love you lots) sounds more natural. In messages, many people sign off with bisous (kisses) or gros bisous (big kisses), the written cousin of la bise, the cheek kiss described in our French greetings guide.

A mini-dialogue

Léa: Tu me manques quand tu n'es pas là.

I miss you when you're not here.

Hugo: Toi aussi, tu me manques. Je pense à toi tout le temps.

I miss you too. I think about you all the time.

Léa: Je crois que je suis amoureuse de toi.

I think I'm in love with you.

Hugo: Moi aussi. Je t'aime, Léa.

Me too. I love you, Léa.

Léa: Je t'aime aussi, mon cœur.

I love you too, sweetheart.

Common mistakes English speakers make

• Mistake: je t'aime beaucoup to a partner → Say instead: je t'aime or je t'aime tellement.
• Mistake: je aime toi (English word order) → Say instead: je t'aime. The pronoun goes before the verb.
• Mistake: je te manque to mean "I miss you" → Say instead: tu me manques.
• Mistake: ma amour → Say instead: mon amour.
• Mistake: answering je t'aime with moi non plus → Say instead: moi aussi.
• Mistake: a woman saying je suis amoureux de toi → Say instead: je suis amoureuse de toi.

Practice

1. Translate: "I love you so much."
2. Your friend says je t'adore. Is this a romantic declaration?
3. A woman wants to say "I'm crazy about you." What does she say?
4. Correct this sentence: Je te manque, mon amour (meaning "I miss you, my love").
5. Your partner says je t'aime. Give two natural replies.

Answers: 1. Je t'aime tellement. 2. Not necessarily: je t'adore is warm and common between friends. 3. Je suis folle de toi. 4. Tu me manques, mon amour. 5. Moi aussi and je t'aime aussi (or moi aussi, je t'aime).

In short

To say I love you in French, say je t'aime (zhuh TEM) and add nothing to it: bien and beaucoup make it weaker. Use je suis amoureux or amoureuse de toi for "I'm in love with you," answer with moi aussi, and in Québec recognize chum and blonde while saying copain and copine yourself. For more everyday phrases with the same warmth, see our French expressions English speakers should know.

Want these phrases ready before your next date or phone call? Download our free French flashcards and practice a few each day. And if you would like a native speaker to check your je t'aime (and everything around it), book a free 30-minute assessment with Magali: she will listen to your pronunciation and tell you exactly what to work on next.