Say i love you?
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!
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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):
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.
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.
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:
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.
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!
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!).
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.
Mei Tachibana (橘 めい, Tachibana Mei) is the main protagonist of Say "I love you".
Throughout the entirety of the anime and manga series, she is shown as the love interest, current girlfriend, and future wife of Yamato Kurosawa.
Mei is a cute teenage girl who stands at average height with fair skin, short brown hair, and big brown eyes. She is noted to have a thin build and appears to slump over slightly.
At the start of the series, Mei's hair is seen cut short into a bob with bangs that touch her eyebrows, followed by chin length fringes, but as the anime progresses, she allows her hair to grow out to her shoulders. In the manga, her hair is seen to grow even longer.
Like the rest of her classmates at Toumei High, Mei is commonly seen wearing her school uniform, though unlike the girls who prefer to wear their skirts short, Mei opts to wear it at mid-thigh length.
However, when Mei is outside of school, and that she's seen hanging out with her friends, or working at the bakery, she is typically seen wearing casual, comfortable clothing, such as sweatshirts or jeans.
At the start of the series, Mei came to the belief that people are quick to betray each other, and that she was be better off by not getting close to anyone. Because of this, she maintained a stoic and unfriendly persona at school to where she held the reputation as the "gloomy girl" amongst her peers.
However, as time goes on, Mei's personality began to change. Due to Yamato's influences of friendship, as well as his faith in her, she becomes more accepting of the people around her, which gradually helps her to make friends again.
Despite these changes in her personality, Mei continues to be just as clumsy, observant, and honest as she was in the beginning of the series.
In some instances, there are moments where Mei is prone to become embarrassed pretty easily, and that usually occurs whenever she's with Yamato. But on the other hand, she gradually gains confidence to where she helps people who're in situations similar to the ones that she's experienced and even tries to offer advice to those every now and then.
At the time when Mei was little, and that she was also in grade school, she had many friends whom she trusted.
However, as soon as when the class pet rabbit had died, and that no one wanted to take the blame for its death, these so-called "friends" that Mei had were more than ready to turn against her. Because, at the point when the teacher had came in and asked the students what happened to the class pet, they immediately blamed Mei for the pet's death, even though she wasn't the one responsible.
Because this experience has greatly affected Mei's outlook on life, and that it warped her perception of those around her quite considerably by the time she had reached her teens, that's what instantly led her to believe how people can easily betray the ones they call "friends". Hence the reason why she decided that it was better for her to not trust anyone at all.
As shown in both the anime and manga, Mei is seen as a quiet and anti-social girl who avoids having to interact with her peers. Due to her past.
Because of this, many people around her would scornfully perceive her as the "gloomy girl".
Although Mei prefers to keep herself distanced, in order to avoid being hurt like she was before, seeing that people were quick to betray others, she figured that things were better this way.
However, at the point when Nakanishi unintentionally knocks Mei down to the floor by accident, and the force of the impact causes her hands to bleed slightly, (Whereas in the manga, he purposefully shoves her in the hallway in an attempt to make Yamato laugh.) she maintains her stoic front by standing up, silently brushing herself off, and continued onward with walking down the halls.
By the time when Nakanishi notes how long Mei's skirt is compared to the other girls, and that he decides to pull it up from behind as she walks her way up the stairs, much like how he had been attempting to do before with his other female classmates, in a further attempt to entertain Yamato, this lecherous action resulted an annoyed Mei to deliver a roundhouse kick to Yamato to where it sent him falling backwards.
Not only did Mei proceed to calls him a creep, loud enough for everyone to hear, and that she orders him to stay away from her, the girls who witnessed the scene began to yell back and demand that she apologizes to Yamato, since Nakanishi was the one who pulled up her skirt, and not him.
However, as the irritated Mei is leaving the area, clearly not intending to deliver any kind of apology, Yamato himself begins to laugh and remark how Mei is interesting.
Followed by that same day towards the end of school, as soon as when Mei goes to put her shoes on, in order to leave, she discovers some thumbtacks and notes which directly demanded that she apologizes to Yamato once again. However, as soon as when Mei turns around, she and that she sees Yamato waiting on her with a now-darkened bruise on the palm of his hand where she kicked him, not only did he proceed to ask her if she is okay, much to her surprise, she hastily apologizes to him for the kick and offers him several band-aids for his wound, while instructing him to tell her if he needs more.
As soon as when Yamato tells Mei that he finds her interesting, and that he wants to get to know her better, he proceeds to ask her for her phone number. However, because she didn't want to risk in getting hurt again, she immediately rebuffs from giving it to him, and proceeds to leave.
In spite of Mei's initial reaction, Yamato proceeds to write his number down on a piece of paper and gives it to her, letting her know that she can contact him any time. From there, Mei finds herself asking what she should do with his number, but because she had no intention of throwing it away, she decides not to do anything.
After the short but brief interaction with Yamato, and that Yamato tries to interact with Mei with every chance he gets, he readily asks her why she hasn't contacted him yet, only to be given excuses in return. While Mei says that she hates phones, and she also says that she doesn't need friends to talk to or for them to be in her life. She then shows him her phone's contact list, which consists only of the numbers of both her home phone and her workplace ― thus, a grand total of two contacts.
When Mei finishes her part-time job at the Bakery Farm, she realizes that she is being stalked by a man who is one of the bakery's regular customers. Her walking pace quickens, only as a means of trying to avoid a dangerous and troublesome situation. Despite her efforts, she is unable to shake the man off, and ends up using a nearby drugstore as temporary refuge.
Pulling out her cell phone, Mei desperately calls home a few times, though, much to her dismay, nobody answers. This sends Mei into a panic. And while she awaits the stalker's departure into the night, to no avail, seeing that he has no intentions of leaving, this potentially leaves Mei at a dead end. However, seeing that Mei knows that she has no other option at this point, she decided to call on Mr. Popular. aka Yamato.
As soon as when she sped dialed the number Yamato provided for her on the torn piece of paper, and that she fearfully informs him of her situation and where she currently is. He immediately rushes to Mei, while cancelling his karaoke date with his circle of friends. Once he arrives, he swiftly and gallantly solves Mei's problem by playing the part of the perfect boyfriend, sweeping a skeptical Mei off of her feet and kissing her as if they were experienced lovers. This gallant act was able to cause the stalker to become a mixture of both shocked and jealous - enough to where it him go away.
After playing the "boyfriend, girlfriend" scenario, Mei shrieks in absolute shock upon realizing that Yamato was her first kiss. As for Yamato, he simply laughs it off, while expressing his utmost joy upon seeing how she finally called him.
Once the ordeal had sunk in, and that Mei accepts the kiss as one that helped her, even if she doesn't wish to admit it, this was the start of a budding romance between Mei and Yamato.
At school, Yamato and his friends, including Asami Oikawa, approach Mei and ask her to join them for a karaoke night, to which she agrees. Some of Yamato's friends, including Aiko Mutō, are shocked to hear that Mei is now speaking quite a bit more than she usually does. Asami asks Mei if she is falling in love with Yamato or sleeping with him, both allegations which Mei strongly denies. Mei says that she only kissed Yamato once, and it was in order to get rid of a stalker. Asami merely laughs and claims she has only kissed him once, too. She then says that he has kissed every girl in school except for Miki Arai, who is Yamato's first crush. Mei appears to be taken aback by this and begins to wonder if Yamato still has feelings for Miki. Soon after finding out about her, Mei sights Arai at school and is automatically transfixed by her cuteness. At the same time, Mei starts to persuade herself that she didn't enjoy Yamato's forceful kiss, dismissing it as rude.
Later, Yamato calls Mei and asks her to hang out. She refuses. She asks him if Arai will be joining them tomorrow, and he answers yes without hesitation, oblivious as to how discouraged the news makes Mei feel. She then presses Yamato further, asking of Arai being his first crush. Again, Yamato confirms her inquiry, but grows suspicious, and wants to know Mei's reason for the sudden personal interrogation. She goes on to explain that she heard about the rumor concerning the absence of Yamato's lips on Miki Arai's, and Yamato responds by telling her to think what she wants to think, claiming he only kisses a girl when he gets the desire to do so.
To satisfy her ever-growing curiosity, Mei decides to follow Yamato when he goes to the karaoke place. She attempts to disguise herself using a simple woolen beanie and a pair of reading glasses. During the "mission," Yamato is asked to meet Miki in the bathroom, which he refuses by leaving the karaoke place. Upon leaving, he encounters a spying Mei and asks her why she was there. She provides Yamato with an almost bashful response, saying that she thought he would end up coming out with Arai in tow. Yamato playfully asks her what would happen if he did. He also prods her about her questioning about Arai over the phone, which catches her off-guard and on the verge of making a fateful escape.
Just as Mei is about to run, Yamato's lips come crashing against her own again, setting her even more on-edge. Breaking away from his sudden suggestive gesture, Mei asks him why he kissed her again without her permission. Yamato simply shrugs it off and replies that he did it only because he wanted to.
Mei, eyes blurry with newly formed tears, tells the audacious boy in front of her that it hurts to be kissed when there aren't any real feelings behind it. Yamato appears shocked, but nevertheless kisses her again. He claims this kiss to be a sign of hello. The boy plants yet another kiss on Mei's lips, and says this kiss is for a person he thinks is cute. Instead of ending it there, Yamato kisses her yet again, and says it is a kiss dedicated to a person that he wants to know better. He kisses her once more, saying it is a kiss for the person that he has feelings for. With a certain passion in his eyes, he pulls away and asks Mei if she can sense the differences between those kisses, and asks her if she has feelings for him.
Mei, wide-eyed and flush-faced, tells him that whenever she thinks about him, her heart aches, to which Yamato responds that those feelings are, in fact, love. Finally, he kisses her for real, and Mei says in her thoughts that the kiss had a taste ― the taste of fried chicken.
At the very beginning, Mei didn't want anything at all to do with him. Even so, Yamato was the first person Mei learned to trust. Yamato gave Mei his number of his own accord, and insisted that she call him some time. Despite vowing that she would never call him, Mei ended up calling Yamato out of desperation when she was being stalked by a man one night after work.
Solving the problem calmly, Yamato ended up being Mei's first kiss. He became Mei's first friend and, eventually, her boyfriend. Throughout both the anime and manga, Yamato and Mei continuously grow as individuals and as a couple. Yamato also introduced Mei to most of her current friends. Later in the show Mei’s feelings grow more and more as her and Yamato experience the relationship together. Mei soon comes to the realization of what kind of feelings she possess for Yamato.
In Chapter 39, the two are in a sexual relationship. It started at Mei's birthday, after the celebration.
In Volume 11 Chapter 72, Yamato and Mei eventually got married (which now makes her Mei Kurosawa) and she gives birth to a baby boy named Ken Kurosawa.
Mei and Kai first met at the bakery where Mei works. Mei later found out that Kai was Yamato's childhood friend, and that he was bullied in the past. As the two become friends and start to grow closer, Kai comes to the firm belief that he has more in common with Mei than Yamato does due to their similar histories, thus believing that he is able to understand her better. Although he eventually accepts her relationship with Yamato, Kai is still in love with Mei and is determined never to abandon her, even if he knows that she doesn't feel the same way.
Asami is Mei's first female friend, and the first female she learns to trust. Mei even went as far as to defend Asami from two girls who were verbally bullying her. Asami is also one of the few people Mei opens up to. When Megumi Kitagawa succeeds in her efforts to distance Asami away from Mei, Mei feels devastated. They are currently very close friends, so much so that they adorn their cell phones with matching accessories.
At first, Aiko felt Mei didn't deserve to be with Yamato, since she didn't work hard enough to get him. However, after she heard Mei talk about her own feelings for Yamato, Aiko accepted Mei and became her friend. Aiko always sees through Mei and can tell when she is hiding something. As soon as Aiko notices Megumi's plan to isolate Mei from her friends, she cuts Megumi off. Aiko remains close friends with Mei, and supports her in her relationship with Yamato.
Right off the bat, Megumi considers Mei her enemy and love rival, believing herself to be deserving of Yamato's affections due to her looks and persona rather than Mei. At first, Mei was fooled by Megumi's bubbly "good girl" act, but she later found out about her true character: cruel, manipulative, and superficial. As the story progresses, Megumi's feelings toward Yamato drive her to try and drive Mei and Yamato apart, using whatever means necessary. When Megumi's true personality is exposed, she and Mei appear to have a strained relationship, but she seems to have grown as a person and given up on trying to steal Yamato's attention from Mei for the time being.
Nagi is Yamato's younger sister. Nagi wasn't fond of Mei when the two first met, believing Mei to be just another girl who would "steal her brother away." However, when Mei told Nagi of her struggles with trusting and befriending others, she started to see Mei for who she really was, and understand how similar she and Mei actually were. Mei helped Nagi overcome her insecurities and encouraged her to try to trust people once again, motivating Nagi to try hard and return to school.
Mei and Ren first met when Ren left his little sister outside of a library, and Mei helped her find him. As thanks, Ren gives Mei some free passes to the gym where he works and gives her some diet advice, which Mei gladly takes.
When the Aoi twins begin attending Mei's school, Mei soon deduces that the quiet, standoffish male twin, Ren, might be just like she was in the past. She makes various efforts to talk to him and help him to open up, many of which he brushes off or responds stiffly to. In spite of his cold attitude and tendency to ignore people for video games, he seems to care about others to a certain degree, as seen when he aids Mei in getting a day-long pre-school teaching job in order to see if the position is right for her.
Say "I Love You" (好きっていいなよ。, Suki-tte Ii na yo.) is a completed manga series authored by Kanae Hazuki that has appeared in the Dessert magazine since 2008.
Quiet and unassuming Mei Tachibana is 16-years-old, but has spent her high school years without making friends or getting a boyfriend because of a childhood incident that left her believing that people will betray each other sooner or later. When she encounters a popular boy named Yamato Kurosawa he becomes interested in her, and it is through their tentative friendship and blossoming relationship that Mei ultimately begins to branch out and befriend others.
Mei Tachibana
Yamato Kurosawa
Asami describes Yamato as someone who thinks of others more than anyone else, protects what should be protected, and cares for others despite having his own problems to deal with.
Asami Oikawa
Kenji Nakanishi
Aiko Mutō
Masashi Tachikawa
Kakeru Hayakawa
Chiharu Ogawa
Megumi Kitagawa
Kai Takemura
Nagi Kurosawa
Daichi Kurosawa
Miki Arai
Mrs. Tachibana
