# I love my best friend



## Kristov91

I've been studying German for several years now and a friend approached me asking for help translating "I love my best (female)friend." into German.

Now of course it would be easy to give her a word for word translation, "Ich liebe meine beste Freundin.", but my question is: is this a weird thing to say in German?

I am aware that the words lieben and Freund are tricky in German because "lieben", unlike the English "love", is far more reserved and I have the feeling this is perhaps not the normal way of expressing love for a friend. Also, I'm always careful with the words for friend because they have the dual meaning of friend or boy/girlfriend. I'm also unsure if "beste" is correct here.

Is it better to say "ich habe meine beste Freundin lieb/gern"?

What is the best way of expressing this sentiment without sounding weird or leaving certain important details(such as the nature of the realationship, romantic or platonic) ambiguous?

I spent some time searching around for answers on the web but have found nothing satisfactory.

Thank you in advance.


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## Kajjo

_Ich habe meine beste Freundin wirklich sehr gern._

You are right and you have understood the main difficulties of "lieben" in German. While several teenage girls probably would actually say "Ich liebe meine beste Freundin", it still does sound weird and irritating to adult ears. I strictly recommend to use "lieben" only for real love like between mother and child or between lovers (girlfriend > boyfriend).

_Ich liebe meine beste Freundin._

This is definitely ambigious and intuitively a German will think about romantic love. It is possible, however, if the context were absolutely clear.


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## Kristov91

Dankeschön. I really appreciate your help.

Might there be any more concise or elegant ways of saying it? It turns out my friend wanted the phrase because she wants to get a tattoo with her best friend. It seems that "_Ich habe meine beste Freundin wirklich sehr gern."  _is quite a clunky phrase, at least to my eyes.

Thank you again for your time and knowledge.


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## perpend

First, it's my opinion, but "no!!!" to tattoos. 

Second: For a tattoo, I'd have it triple-checked by native speakers of course---but now I'm sounding schoolmarmish.

Your post made me think of the handy verb "liebhaben".

Maybe: Ich habe meine beste Freundin sehr lieb.

I think this is somewhere between "gernhaben" and "lieben". Also, just an opinion.


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## Kristov91

Personally I agree, but I'm trying to make sure she at least gets it right if she's getting a tattoo. This is a good friend of my girlfriend's and I can't let her screw it up.

I was thinking about suggesting "Freunde fürs Leben" or something to that effect instead. How would that sound?

Semi-related: This is what I love about German, liebhaben, gernhaben, the compound words are beautiful.


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## Kajjo

A tattoo with a statement like "Ich tue dies... / Ich liebe sie..." is NOT idiomatic in German anyway. I strictly recommend not to use such trivial, standard sentences. Also such saying "meine beste Freundin" without name or identifier appears to be very strange, too. This would be ridicilous in German. More typical would be short phrases that are not complete sentences like in a motto of a military unit or in dedications:

_In Liebe
Für immer beste Freunde
Kristov und Susi_

...or similar phrases.

Further, I agree with perpend that a permanent tattoo for a best friend is not really recommendable. Friendship might seem, but really is not eternal in most cases.


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## Frieder

Kristov91 said:


> I was thinking about suggesting "Freunde fürs Leben" or something to that effect instead. How would that sound?


Just what you're looking for in a nutshell.


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## perpend

Ich finde "Freunde fürs Leben" *doff* für eine Tätowierung. Sorry.

Talk your friend down, Kristov. Think about it.


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## Frieder

Ich behaupte nicht, dass es nicht doof sei ... es ist nur genau das, wonach er sucht.


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## perpend

Mag sein, but it needs to be triple-checked by native German speakers. So, you are #1.


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## Hutschi

Hi, it is really difficult.
I come to:

"Meine beste Freundin hab ich lieb."

"Hab" is a colloquial form for "habe". Usually it is written "hab' " - I am not sure here whether to use apostrophe or not.
The sound is much more poetically than with "habe".
It is more tender, too.

The sequence gives the main focus to "meine beste Freundin" and "lieb".


Kajjo gave: "_Ich habe meine beste Freundin wirklich sehr gern."
_
This is a very correct German sentence, but "wirklich" can switch it to the contrary.
"Wirklich" introduces doubt.
And "sehr gern" introduces a quantity - so it is not as intensive as "gern".

You may compare:

_I love you._ vs._ I love you very much._

Here I'd prefer:
"_Ich hab' meine beste Freundin gern." -> Meine beste Freundin hab ich gern.
Here also "Meine beste Freundin lieb' ich sehr" works. "Sehr" and "lieb' ich" weakens "liebe ich" so you could use it._

Perpend wrote: "Ich habe meine beste Freundin sehr lieb."
Here is the same weakening with "sehr". But it weaks "Ich habe sie lieb." THis is too much weakening for my feeling.
"Habe" is standard and default level, _hab' _would sound more tenderly and poetic. I used this in another sequence.

"Freunde fürs Leben" is correct, but in German I'd call it "Klischee". It is just overused.


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## Frieder

Hutschi said:


> "Meine beste Freundin hab ich lieb."


And you would recommend this to be tatooed on your friend's arm?
I'd rather go for the "Klischee".


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## perpend

Hutschi said:


> "Meine beste Freundin hab ich lieb."



That's really good from Hutschi, and reduced the letter count! 

Still triple-check it. Hutschi is native speaker #1, for the new tattoo. (I know, schoolmarmish perpend. Sorry.)

EDIT: Cross-posted.


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## Hutschi

You are right, it is also a kind of "Klischee". 
The problem is the tatoo at all.
It is too long for a tatoo.

Maybe there is a kind of picture or pictogramm or a symbol.


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## perpend

Frieder said:


> I'd rather go for the "Klischee".



Why is "Freunde fürs Leben" better, Frieder? 

What if they totally f--k up the umlaut? Embarrassing, not to mention you have to explain it to your kids and grandchildren. Whatevs.


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## elroy

How about using a heart character?

_Ich ♥ meine beste Freundin.
_
What would that convey in German?

(By the way, I don't think it's our place to advise people on whether they or their friends should get tattoos. )


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## perpend

elroy said:


> How about using a heart character?
> 
> _Ich ♥ meine beste Freundin._
> 
> (By the way, I don't think it's our place to advise people on whether they or their friends should get tattoos. )



I think it costs extra for a heart character. Anyway, a "heart character" could mean once again "*love*".

Back to square one of the OP. 

It's supposed to be a "one-off" love.

EDIT: "tattoos" were fair game as far as I'm concerned from the get-go.


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## Frieder

perpend said:


> Why is "Freunde fürs Leben" better, Frieder?



I only thought about how much "real estate" such a long-ish phrase would use up. "Freunde fürs Leben" are just three rather short words.



elroy said:


> By the way, I don't think it's our place to advise people on whether they or their friends should get tattoos.


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## elroy

In _English_, it would mean "love," which wouldn't be a problem because it would be understood to refer to platonic love in this context.

I was wondering how it would be read/interpreted/understood in German.  I thought maybe a heart character would not only save space but also avoid the whole "lieben/gernhaben/liebhaben" trilemma and convey the intended connotation.


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## perpend

A heart symbol means like Taylor Swift says "I heart you". What's love got to do with it?

A heart symbol does not mean "love" for me, in the purest sense.

I'm a contrarian, obviously---don't get the tattoo---if you do, have it triple-checked by grammarians (German native speakers). I haven't seen that yet happen for a version for Kristov.


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## Hutschi

The advantage of "Freunde fürs Leben" is that it does not expire. You can read it also in a generalized form.

A question to context: Do you mention names?


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## Kristov91

Thanks everybody for all the input. All really good information and suggestions. If nothing else I have learned a lot form this.

I am really leaning toward suggesting something motto-ish even if cliché like _Freunde fürs Leben _or _Immer beste beste Freunde _as Kajjo suggested. Frankly I think the idea of getting a "best friends tattoo" is cliché to begin with so I don't think she's worried about coming off as cheesy. (Though I will of course pass that opinion on for her consideration.)

Are there any other such expressions to consider?

Hutschi, I do know the names but I would not recommend anyone ever get specific names tattooed.

I don't know this girl well enough that I can talk her down from the tattoo idea, it's simply not my place, I just want to give her the best information I can and let her decide.


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## Hutschi

> Hutschi, I do know the names but I would not recommend anyone ever get specific names tattooed.



This way the suggestions _Freunde fürs Leben_ and _Immer beste beste Freunde _are good.
_
I am not sure about repeating "beste" - _but_ Immer beste beste Freunde _is not cliché.


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## Dan2

Sorry if I missed this... but why does she want the tattoo to be in German?


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## Kajjo

_Für immer beste Freunde
_
...would be my suggestion after all. That's at least motto-ish and not a full sentence. Again, full grammatical sentences are very unusual for tattoos.

Yes, why does she want it to be in German in the first place?


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## Kristov91

Thank you, I will suggest both _Freunde fürs Leben _and _Für immer beste Freunde _and let her pick.

As to why she wants it in German, I'm not 100% sure. In America everything is cooler if it's in a foreign language, haha, it makes you look more cultured? She took some German in high school and I guess she feels some kind of connection to the language.. honestly I don't know.


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## Kajjo

@#26: Good choices. Let us know what she finally did.


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## Kristov91

Kajjo said:


> @#26: Good choices. Let us know what she finally did.



Will do, thanks again everyone.


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