# Love (verb / adjective)



## Khalo

I would like to know if the word 'love' is a verb or an adjective (or both) in your language...
In English: I *love* you. (verb)

For the first time it struck me that in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, it can only be used as an adjective.
_"Ek is *lief* vir jou."_ (I am love at/for you)
It is sort of the same as:
_"I am angry at you."_ or _"I am happy for you."
_
With my limited knowledge of foreign languages I think it is a verb in English, German, French, Chinese, and most other languages.
The only languages that I can think of where it's used as an ajective is Dutch and Afrikaans - I would like to know more.

I think it is interesting that the different uses makes different forms of the word 'love' possible or impossible, i.e. if it is used as a verb you can make a past construction 'loved' which is not possible if you use it as an adjective except by constructing the whole sentence in the past tense. And used as an adjective you can have degrees of comparison, as in Afrikaans, "lief, liewer, liefste";which is not possible in English.

Curiosity killed the cat.


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic you can derive it the way you want.

I love you = أنا أحبك = ana uHibbuka = verb.
_Ek is *lief* vir jou_ = أنا حابٌّ لك = ana Haabbun laka (I am love for you) = adjective/noun.
???? = أنا محبوبك = ana maHboobuka (I am love by you) = adjective/noun.
I am your love (refering to love itself) = أنا حُبّك = ana Hubbuka = noun/verbal noun.
I am your love (refering to the one you love) = أنا حبيبك = ana Habeebuka = noun.


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## TitTornade

Hello,

In French we can use the both possibilities :
I *love* you = je t'*aime*
_Ek is *lief* vir jou_ = je suis *amoureux* de toi  (if I'm a man)
                      = je suis *amoureuse* de toi  (if I'm a woman)

both can be constructed in past or in future :
- je t'aimais (past), je t'aime (present), je t'aimerai (futur)  (in reference to a French singer's song...)
- j'étais amoureux de toi, je suis amoureux de toi, je serai amoureux de toi

both can be said in different degrees :
- je t'aime un peu (a little), beaucoup (a lot), passionément (with passion), à la folie (madly)... (as said in a french children's game...)
- je suis amoureux (lief), plus amoureux (liewer), le plus amoureux (liefste)...


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## jazyk

Love can be a noun (amor) and a verb (amar) in Portuguese and Spanish.


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## federicoft

In Italian it can be a noun (_amore_, 'love'), a verb (_amare, _'to love') and an adjective (_innamorato_, 'in love').


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## Outsider

Khalo said:


> I would like to know if the word 'love' is a verb or an adjective (or both) in your language...
> In English: I *love* you. (verb)


English "love" is both a verb and a _noun_.



Khalo said:


> For the first time it struck me that in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, it can only be used as an adjective.
> _"Ek is *lief* vir jou."_ (I am love at/for you)
> It is sort of the same as:
> _"I am angry at you."_ or _"I am happy for you."
> _


That is curious, and unusual to the best of my knowledge.



Khalo said:


> With my limited knowledge of foreign languages I think it is a verb in English, German, French, Chinese, and most other languages.


French (like Italian) has two main words for "love": the noun _amour_, and the verb _aimer_. Other Romance languages are the same, I expect.


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## Frank06

Hi,


Khalo said:


> I would like to know if the word 'love' is a verb or an adjective (or both) in your language...[...]
> For the first time it struck me that in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, it can only be used as an adjective.
> _"Ek is *lief* vir jou."_ (I am love at/for you)


Quite to my surprise, my Dutch dictionary mentions the verb 'lieven, liefde, geliefd', though it is marked as 'poetic'. It seems to pop up in some Evangelic church songs. So, it surely isn't the most common word, to put it mildly .

Groetjes,

Frank


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## ThomasK

I don't know any of those or other songs, Frank, but OK... 

I just thought of the fact that we do have *'minne'* (the old love word, that the Germans no longer use, I believe), - and which does not have the same etymologythe V 'beminnelijk' and some adjectives containing that word ('minzaam', though not referring to love, 'beminnelijk', based on the verb, others maybe). 

I guess it is purely 'accidental' that we do not use the verb 'lieven' any longer (we do have 'believen', but that does not refer to love).


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## Spiritoso78

This my contribute to help you get more info about such topic:

TO LOVE in Italian tallies with the verb AMARE: example:

*Amarti è tutto quello che desidero*: Loving you is all I want

whilst LOVE is L'AMORE (noun)

*L'amore è parte della vita*: Love is part of our life

then you have lovely (con amore, amorevolmente)....in loving memory of.....in ricordo del caro...


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## almufadado

Em Português :



- Verbo: Amar (to love)
"Eu amo a minha esposa"/"Eu amo o meu marido" (presente)
"Ele amou-a loucamente" (passado)
"Eu amar-te-ei para sempre" (futuro)



Substantivo : O Amor (The Love), O/A amante (The lover), o amado/a amada (The lover),o amador/a amadora (The amateur)



"O amor entre duas pessoas é muito lindo"
"O meu amor/amante/amado faz-me bem"
"O atleta amador pode ir ao jogos olimpicos"



Adjectivo : Amado/Amada (person ), amorosa (lovely), amável (that can be loved/kind), amador (not a professional)



"Ele é uma pessoa muito amada"
"Ela é (uma rapariga) amorosa"
"Foi muito amável da sua parte !"
"O desporto amador é essencial"


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## Linguanne

And in Norwegian the noun is _kjærlighet_ and the verb is _elske_.... (Similarly in Danish kærlighed/elske and in Swedish kärlek/älska - to cover all three Scandinavian languages.)


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## akaAJ

My first thought was that love was both a noun and a verb in English, and just about in Yiddish (libn=to love, libe=love (noun)), but never an adjective.

I guess, as in German, the past participle can be used as both an adjective and a noun: "Loved ones"; "libe fraynt" = "beloved friends" (dear friends); "my beloved", "mayn  gelibte(r)" -- female or male.  But that kind of thing can be done with many verbs;  I don't know if that was the point of the question.

As an aside, "I love you" ("Ich liebe dich" in German) is more likely to be rendered "Ikh hob dikh lib" which I think has a German equivalent "liebhaben". For things, "hobn lib" usually means "to like", except perhaps for usages such as "I love life, I love freedom".

A colloquial (or solecistic) verb is "glaykhn" (which as "glaykh" = German "gleich" is straight or equal): "Ikh glaykh esn kugl" = proper "Ikh hob lib esn kugl" = "I like eating pudding".  I have also heard "Ikh glaykh ir" ("I like her").  In the old song "Everbody loves Saturday night" purists used "Yeyder eyner hot lib shabes baynakht", but lost ground to "Yeyder eyner glakht shabes banakht".   "glakht" is in fact the way Litvaks ("Lithuanians"=northeastern Jews) and Varshever (Warsaw Jews) parody the Austro-Hungarian Galitsyeynerish pronunciation.


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## dinji

Linguanne said:


> And in Norwegian the noun is _kjærlighet_ and the verb is _elske_.... (Similarly in Danish kærlighed/elske and in Swedish kärlek/älska - to cover all three Scandinavian languages.)


And in Swedish we moreover have the cognate noun _älskog_ 'fysical love' and the adjectives _kär_ 'dear, beloved' OR '[fallen] in love', _älskad_ 'beloved' and _älsklig_ 'lovable, charming'


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## ThomasK

Linguanne said:


> And in Norwegian the noun is _kjærlighet_ and the verb is _elske_.... (Similarly in Danish kærlighed/elske and in Swedish kärlek/älska - to cover all three Scandinavian languages.)


 
How about the meaning ? is it something like to 'care for' ?


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## Volcano

*In Turkish, 

aşk - love, sevmek - to love *


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## dinji

ThomasK said:


> How about the meaning ? is it something like to 'care for' ?


Not really, the dictionary (Swedish) gives for _älska_
1) 'love; like, be very fond of; adore'
2) 'make love to, have sex with'

Historically the word has had the meaning 'nourish' at least when talking about animals, so that comes a bit closer to what you ask. It is cognate to Latin _alere,_ 'to nourish' and to English _old_ (one who has had a lot of growing strength): http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE11.html


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## ThomasK

That is most amazing,I think... Thanks !


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## bb3ca201

in Scottish Gaelic we need the noun in order to create the verb "to love"; the verb litterally translates as "I have love on you":

tha gaol (or GRÀDH) agam ort.

Afterthought: in the Bible, you actually have the verb "gràdhaich" (to love), but it's just that -- archaic and Biblical.  It's not used in everyday conversation


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## sakvaka

I am not very sure if I can modify the word this much, but let's try this in Finnish.

rakkaus - love (noun)
rakastaa - to love (verb)
rakastettu - beloved (adjective)
rakastava - loving (adjective)
rakastunut - in love (adjective)
rakastaja - lover (noun)
rakastella - to make love (verb)
rakas - sweetheart, darling, dear (noun or adjective)


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## ThomasK

Could one say 'rakk-' words are somehow older or 'more original' than the rakast- words ? The latter seem like derivations from 'rakk-' to an outsider like me. 

What can you use 'rakkaus' with ? Only persons, or all kinds of things ?


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## sakvaka

ThomasK said:


> Could one say 'rakk-' words are somehow older or 'more original' than the rakast- words ? The latter seem like derivations from 'rakk-' to an outsider like me.
> 
> What can you use 'rakkaus' with ? Only persons, or all kinds of things ?



1) Sorry to admit but I don't know. I believe they have developed at the same time, but I may be wrong.

2) With anything. _Rakkaus omaan kotimaahan_ (love towards your home country), _äidinrakkaus_ (mother's love or love towards mother).


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## ThomasK

Ad 1: maybe one part of the answer could be: can you make other/ new words based on the ast-suffix or -infix (taking a Verb and then adding -ast- ...). That would prove that rakk- is the base word, I think. 

Ad 2: also 'stupid', excuse, unimportant things ? Can you _rakkaus_ a sport, spinach ?


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## sakvaka

1. New words are created with the rakast-stem. _Rakkaus_ seems to be an exception.

rakasta|ja (lover)
rakasta|mo (a "factory" where people become loved )
rakast|in (a machine that makes you fall in love with something )
rakasta|va (a person who loves)
rakasta|va|inen (lovebird)
rakasta|va|hko (a person who loves a little/"somewhat")
rakasta|va|sti (adverb: with love)

2. There are no stupid questions, just questions... (Tyhmiä kysymyksiä ei olekaan, vain kysymyksiä.)

You can rakastaa anything or anyone. _Pitää_ means the same but is milder in meaning (to like/to be fond of), _rakastaa _is something passionate - just as in English.

I love spenach. Rakastan pinaattia (or: Pidän pinaatista.)
I love football. Rakastan jalkapalloa (or: Pidän jalkapallosta.)


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## ThomasK

Well, at least we could not say : 'Ik heb voetbal lief' (only _voetballers_, perhaps) ;-)

Ad 1 : then I guess _rakkaus_ is older... 
Ad 1 : the _rakastamo, rakastin_: strange culture, Finnish - or where is that place/ what is that machine ? ;-)


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## sakvaka

ThomasK said:


> Well, at least we could not say : 'Ik heb voetbal lief' (only _voetballers_, perhaps) ;-)
> 
> Ad 1 : then I guess _rakkaus_ is older...
> Ad 1 : the _rakastamo, rakastin_: strange culture, Finnish - or where is that place/ what is that machine ? ;-)



There are none yet, but I just made up the words for them  

_Pakastin _(freezer) exists already (_pakastaa_ - to freeze), so let us wait to see the first _rakastin_ to arrive, then all problems in the world would be suddenly solved!

Ps. I specified the definition for _rakastamo_ some posts up. Currently it means a "factory" where people become loved. Imagine this strange assembly line...


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## dinji

ThomasK said:


> Could one say 'rakk-' words are somehow older or 'more original' than the rakast- words ? The latter seem like derivations from 'rakk-' to an outsider like me.
> 
> What can you use 'rakkaus' with ? Only persons, or all kinds of things ?


 
rak(k)a(s/*h)- is the stem of the word. The degemination of the -kk- is regular morfophonemics conditioned on the syllable structure. The element -t(a)- is a derivational suffix making it a verb. Thus rak(k)as-ta- 'to love' is the enlarged stem forming the basis for further derivation with the iterative -el- suffix.


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## behemot

In polish:
love (noun)- miłość
to love (verb)- kochać
be in love- być zakochanym


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## sakvaka

dinji said:


> rak(k)a(s/*h)- is the stem of the word. The degemination of the -kk- is regular morfophonemics conditioned on the syllable structure. The element -t(a)- is a derivational suffix making it a verb. Thus rak(k)as-ta- 'to love' is the enlarged stem forming the basis for further derivation with the iterative -el- suffix.



Thank you, dinji, for specifying  I don't know very much about deriving words in Finnish...


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## dinji

dinji said:


> Not really, the dictionary (Swedish) gives for _älska_
> 1) 'love; like, be very fond of; adore'
> 2) 'make love to, have sex with'
> 
> Historically the word has had the meaning 'nourish' at least when talking about animals, so that comes a bit closer to what you ask. It is cognate to Latin _alere,_ 'to nourish' and to English _old_ (one who has had a lot of growing strength): http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE11.html


 
The etymology given here is the traditional one but according to recent research it might be wrong. I refer to this thread: 
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1373609


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## Awwal12

Hm... In Russian there is a root "-lyub-" [l'üb] (-люб-), from which two basic words are derived:
- the noun "lyub*o*v'" ("a love", любовь, n, f, [l'übov'], - the last syllable is stressed, the first and the last consonants are palatalized)
- and the verb "lyub*i*t'" ("to love", любить, [l'üb'it'], - the last syllable is stressed, all the consonants are palatalized)

The other nouns and adjectives are usually produced from these two, or from other paronymous verbs.

- lyub*i*myi, lyub*i*maya (n or a, m/f - любимый/любимая) - loved one; darling, from the verb "любить".
- lyub*o*vnyi (a, m, любовный) - related to love, from the noun "любовь".
- vlyubly*a*tsa (v, влюбляться) - to fall in love
- vlyubly*o*nnyi, vlyubly*o*nnaya (n or a, m/f, влюбленный/влюбленная) - a man/girl in love, from the verb "влюбляться"
- lyb*o*vnik, lyub*o*vnitsa (n, m/f, любовник/любовница) - a lover (ususally in rude meaning), from the noun "любовь"
- vozly*u*blennyi, vozly*u*blennaya (n or a, m/f, возлюбленный/возлюбленная) - a lover (poetically), from the obsolete verb of perfective aspect "возлюб*и*ть" (to love)
...Etc, and so on... ))

The problem is that the English is comparatively simple, context-sensitive analytical language, where one word "love" can be noun, or verb, or adjective - and a part of multiple different constructions as well. But in Russian (just like in many other languages) the question of this topic wouldn't have sense at all.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Αγάπη-love 
Aɣ*a*pi, (_feminine noun_)
Αγαπάω/αγαπώ-to love
Aɣap*o*, or in its uncontracted form, Aɣap*a*o, (_verb_)
Αγαπημένος, αγαπημένη, αγαπημένο-beloved
Aɣapim*e*nos, (_masculine participle_), aɣapim*e*ni, (_feminine participle_), aɣapim*e*no, (_neuter participle_).
I'm in love: Είμαι ερωτευμένος, -η
*I*me erotevm*e*nos (_masculine participle_), erotevm*e*ni (_feminine participle_), from the ancient Greek god of love, Ἔρως ('erōs) which also described sexual love (ἔρως, 'erōs, _m._).
[ɣ] is a voiced velar fricative


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## szal

In German we have *Liebe* (noun; f.), *lieben* (_(ich) liebe, liebte, geliebt_; verb + accusative). Additionally there is the adjective *lieb*, meaning _nice_, _behaving_, _beloved_ and perhaps some other things depending on the context.

@ *ThomasK*: “Minne” is indeed an ancient word for “Liebe”, mainly found in Middle High German texts, later for poetic use only.


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## Kanes

In Bulgarian it is a noun, the root however is a source for many words. Not for the verb to love though!

любов - love (noun)
любя - I make love (verb)
обичам - I love (verb)


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