# te quiero - te amo



## Encolpius

I know "Te quiero" is the Spanish translation of "I love you", but I also know there is the verb "amar". So can I also say "Te amo" and is there any difference between te quiero and te amo. 
My second question is how to say if I want to say "I love you, seňora/seňor" I mean if I used Usted???
Le quiero? Lo quiero? La quiero??? Les/Los/Las quiero???
Thank you in advance.


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## Reina140

If I'm correct Te amo isn't commonly used in Spain.  They always use "Te quiero"

Te amo is more common among latin american countries for the person they love, and te quiero can be used for friends and family.


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## natasha2000

1. although it basically means the same, te amo is more serious and more comminting than te quiero. If someone says to you te amo, then you can be very sure about his/her love for you. On the other hand, sometimes, te quiero can be interepreted as I want you, but this depends a lot of context and a way in which it is said. I think it has been already discussed in this forum. I suggest you to use the serach engine and to find threads that treat this subject.
2. Le quiero, señora/señor.

EDIT: I also confirm what Reina said.


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## Lebasi

Hi Encolpius,
In European Spanish, saying "Te amo" sounds a bit corny.  In Spain they tend to just use "Te quiero".  I learned that the hard way.  

In Latin American Spanish, "Te amo" is mostly used to express romantic, intense love. Te quiero is more general.  I say mostly, because one hears sentences like "Mi mamá me ama".  

Hope it helps.


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## POPmuzik

no no lebasi. in spain isnt corny. is absolut loving his/her, more than i love you

i love my mum = quiero a mi madre
i love my girlfriend (in a context of absolut love) = amo a mi novia


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## Lebasi

That's sweet!  Maybe for some it is corny and for others it isn't?


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## POPmuzik

yea, of course. i am talking about spanish sense


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## Olegaria

Interesting what you are discussing here, I can't resist to participate with what I know if this.  Amar and querer are certainly used in Spain.  But it is true that amar is used for 'a superior king of love'  or somehting like this. SOrry my Englsih is not accurate.

We only use 'amar' to express love, whreas 'querer' is also used to say we want something, ie. 'quiero un helado de vainilla, quiero viajar etc.

Amar derives form Latin and exists in french 'aimer'  and italian 'amare' and other romance languages.

We use 'amar' for expressions like 'amar a tu pais, amar a Dios and for romantic love.  But it is true that my Latinamerican friends rarely use 'querer' to express love, no big deal, eh?  Spanish is spoken in many countries and it is to be expected.  Why some people get so irritated with these things?

If Encolpius wants to say I love you to a senor, senora I suggest to use another verb:  'Le aprecio mucho senor/senora' or to both 'Les aprecio mucho a los dos/ustedes'.  Apreciar is handy in formal situations.

Cheers


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## Encolpius

So how to translate this sentence? 
I don't want any ice cream because I don't love it at all.
[querer - amar, querer - querer]  
Gracias!


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## Jaén

Encolpius said:


> So how to translate this sentence?
> I don't want any ice cream because I don't love it at all.
> [querer - amar, querer - querer]
> Gracias!


I guess you want to say you don't *like* ice cream at all, if you don't *like* it, you don't *love* it, right? So,

"No quiero helado porque no me gusta (nada/ni un poco)"


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## Olegaria

Encolpius said:


> So how to translate this sentence?
> I don't want any ice cream because I don't love it at all.
> [querer - amar, querer - querer]
> Gracias!



Hola Encolpius

Here is my suggestion:

No quiero helado porque *no me gusta nada* / *no me gusta en absoluto*

I am unsure about 'I don't love it at all'.

I have heard 'I love ice-cream'  but I have never heard 'I don't love ice cream'  rather people say "I don't like ice-cream'

But the native English speakers will know better!

Cheers


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## Encolpius

Yes, of course I am not sure either if I can say "I don't love ice cream". 
thanx


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## JB

How about:
No quiero helado.  Lo odio.  Me da asco.
I don't want ice cream. I hate it. It makes me sick (figuratively, not literally,).

You might enjoy listening to this song, which has a lot of "te quiero" in it.
http://www.cri-cri.net/Canciones/lamunecafea.html


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## Jaén

Bruce!
Muchas gracias por ese bonito recordatorio de mi infancia!

Hacía tiempo que no escuchaba a Cri Cri!

Saludos!

Alberto.


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## SpiceMan

I think there's no such latinamerica/Spain division here. It's different in each country. In Argentina, te quiero is far more common than "te amo" which sounds rather soup operaish. That, however, doesn't mean it isn't used in "those special moments".


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## natasha2000

Encolpius, I see you have a little confusion about these verbs.

Amar will never be used for anything else but persons. It expresses only and solely true feeling of love towards someone. This is not the case with LOVE in English. You can say to your boyfriend thatr you love him, but you can also say you Love icecream. I love ice cream in Spanish would be Me encanta el helado.

Querer is a verb that can have many uses. It is like WANT in English, but it also can be used to express your affection towards someone. So you can Querer a una persona, and here you express your affection. But you also can querer jugar, querer una manzana which foru sure does not express your affection towards playing of apples, but your something that you want or not to do or have.

Finally, if you want to express your preferences, then you use the verb GUSTAR. 
I like icecream. Me gusta el helado.
I like waliking in the rain. Me gusta pasear en la lluvia.
I don't like this guy. No me gusta este tío.

Hope this helps a little bit...


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## whattheflock

Pues, regresando a tu segunda pregunta original, te quiero decir que yo soy muy malo para evitar el "leísmo", "laísmo" y "loísmo". Te recomiendo que busques un artículo del DPD de la RAE.


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## Lebasi

_In my dialect of English (US Mid-Atlantic)_

"*I don't love ice-cream*," _sounds strange.  Nevertheless, it sounds fine in the following context:_

_A is commenting on how much B absolutely loves ice cream. B disagrees._ 

A: *You LOVE ice cream*.
B (*angrily): No, I don't LOVE ice cream.*

_In yet another context, this would also be OK._ 

*It's not like I love ice-cream.  *

In this case, the meaning is I like ice cream OK, but I'm not crazy about it.

Hope it helps!


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## MatildeSometimes

Mis dos pennies worth:

Yo soy espanola y nunca usaria Te Amo en conversacion general ni se lo diria  a mi marido, hija, madre, amigos etc. A mi me suena a culebron!!. Te quiero siempre!!


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## Encolpius

Gracias a todos. 
I am still influenced by Italian.


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## Outsider

This other thread is tangentially related to your question. You may like to read it: _All languages: I love you or I want you?_


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## elchoco

Que interesante todo esto!  Mi novia de madrid siempre me dice *"te amo"*  y nunca *"te quiero"*.  Pero tiene una frase hecha que sale asi: *"Ayy, que te tengo que querer!"*

Por cierto, SpiceMan, quizas quisaste decir *"Soap Opera"* en vez de *"Soup Opera"*.  jaja, tengo que agradecerte mucho por que tu frase me quedó con un imagen muy bonito 

Adelente campiones!


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## broud

Tu novia de Madrid es un caso extraño  

La verdad que ahora que lo haces notar si que sale una imagen bonita 

Por cierto, es campeones y no campiones. Pero eso también me recuerda de la cancioncilla de unos dibujos: campiones campiones campiones tira y mete gol!! Bueno, decían campeones claro, pero sonaba como una i.


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## elchoco

Gracias broud,

Tienes razon, mi novia de madrid es un caso muy, pero muy, extraño, eso sé muy bien.

Y tambien, claro que sí es campeones.  Gracias por corregirme.

El choco


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## natasha2000

elchoco said:


> Gracias broud,
> 
> Tienes razon, mi novia de madrid es un caso muy, pero muy, extraño, eso sé muy bien.
> 
> Y tambien, claro que sí es campeones. Gracias por corregirme.
> 
> El choco


 
Y tu tienes mucha suerte. no se dice a cualquiera "te amo". Cuída a tu novia, que te quiere mucho.


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## yanqui

Encolpius said:


> My second question is how to say if I want to say "I love you, seňora/seňor" I mean if I used Usted???
> Le quiero? Lo quiero? La quiero??? Les/Los/Las quiero???
> Thank you in advance.



Since your second question hasn't been addressed yet, I'll put in my 2 centavos worth. I believe the correct usage would be "Le quiero".


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## natasha2000

yanqui said:


> Since your second question hasn't been addressed yet, I'll put in my 2 centavos worth. I believe the correct usage would be "Le quiero".


 
Yes it was. Look post Nº3...


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## elchoco

I'm trying to think of any situation when you'd want to say "*I love you*" formally.  

Perhaps you could say to someone's parents, "Pero la quiero".  Por ejemplo, in Los Borgias (terrible film), Lucrezia Borgia says to her father "pero lo amaba" when she finds out he has killed her husband.

Perhaps if I was going out with the queen I'd have to say this.  Surely not if we were alone.  I don't know.


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## yanqui

natasha2000 said:


> Yes it was. Look post Nº3...



I stand corrected!


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## natasha2000

elchoco said:


> I'm trying to think of any situation when you'd want to say "*I love you*" formally.
> 
> Perhaps you could say to someone's parents, "Pero la quiero". Por ejemplo, in Los Borgias (terrible film), Lucrezia Borgia says to her father "pero lo amaba" when she finds out he has killed her husband.
> 
> Perhaps if I was going out with the queen I'd have to say this. Surely not if we were alone. I don't know.


 
I think that te amo sounds a little bit old fashioned, and in times of Borgia it fits perfectly, but nowadays... At least in Spain. In America, it is a different story, as I heard...


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## elchoco

What I was really hoped to highlight was that lucretia said "*lo amaba*" and not "*le amaba*".  

Also, I still don't understand how you can say "I love you" in the USTED form (whether you use amar or querer).  

Anyone care to give an example?

Gracias foreros.

(Blimey, that's one juicy avatar you've got there, Natasha2000!)


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## Jaén

elchoco said:


> What I was really hoped to highlight was that lucretia said "*lo amaba*" and not "*le amaba*".
> 
> Also, I still don't understand how you can say "I love you" in the USTED form (whether you use amar or querer).
> 
> Anyone care to give an example?
> 
> Gracias foreros.
> 
> (Blimey, that's one juicy avatar you've got there, Natasha2000!)


Por lo menos *en América*, usamos 'lo' como pronombre de complemento directo para 'usted'. No sé cómo ni cuando se empezó a usar así, tanto para persona ('usted'), como para objetos.

"Necesito hablar con Juan, voy a buscar*lo*" (es una persona)

En España dirán:

"Necesito hablar con Juan, voy a buscar*le*" (es una persona)

"Quiero ese libro, voy a comprar*lo*"."Compré el libro, ya *lo* leí" (es un objeto, no usamos 'le')

Ahora, tanto en América, como en España, sí usamos 'le' cuando la persona es el complemento indirecto.

"A Juan *le* gusta leer" =>
Observa que aquí Juan es el complemento indirecto de la frase, no podemos decir "A Juan *lo* gusta leer"

"Voy a buscar a Juan, y *le* diré que quieres hablar con él" =>
Por la misma razón, aquí tampoco se puede decir '*lo* diré'

Bueno, son ejemplos simples, pero espero que te ayuden a resolver tu duda! Puedes continuar preguntando, si no son suficientes.

Saludos!

Alberto.


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## little_flower

Muy buena pregunta hee,!

Pues mira como dice una cancion muy conocida " Y es que amar y querer no es igual.. amar es sufrir querer es gozar.." jeje

El -amar-  es mas usado en cuanto a tu novio/a 
" te amo mi amor.." etc
Y el "querer" es mas para amigos, familiares, etc 
" te quiero.."

Y eso era algo que siempre tenia duda, en ingles como diferencias cuando te estan diciendo TE AMO y cuando te dicen TE QUIERO.
Osea si un chavo le dice a una chava I LOVE YOU siempre es te quiero?
No usan haya el "te amo", por son palabras muy diferentes..

Gracias!

bye


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## elpoderoso

This will probably sound stupid, but how would you say that you want someone, for example when you are picking people out of a line, would you say ''te quiero''?


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## natasha2000

elchoco said:


> What I was really hoped to highlight was that lucretia said "*lo amaba*" and not "*le amaba*".
> 
> Also, I still don't understand how you can say "I love you" in the USTED form (whether you use amar or querer).
> 
> Anyone care to give an example?
> 
> Gracias foreros.
> 
> (Blimey, that's one juicy avatar you've got there, Natasha2000!)


 
Yes, that's correct. lo amaba. Accusative is LO. The thing is that it is permitted to say LE if it is USTED. But Lucrecia does not refer to his father she does not speak to 2nd person sing. but third pers. sing. and she does not use UD. form.

As far as querer & usted, nobody says this today, it is to corny. But earlier, in earlier centuries, it was normal that a gentleman says to a lady "Le amo, luz de mi vida!" "Le quiero, mi corazón!"

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.



elpoderoso said:


> This will probably sound stupid, but how would you say that you want someone, for example when you are picking people out of a line, would you say ''te quiero''?


 
No, it is not stupid. If you pick people out of a line, you will say "quiero ese, ese y ese fuera de la cola!" or I sould use some other words. "Te eligo a ti, a ti y a ti!"

I would like to say that if you want someone sexually, you say in English, I want you! Well, this would be expressed in Spanish "Te deseo!" using another verb - desear.


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## elpoderoso

gracias, ahora no estoy tan confundida


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## Jaén

elpoderoso said:


> gracias, ahora no estoy tan confundida


Hey!
Be careful with the gender in Spanish!

If you are a man, you must say 

"ahora no estoy tan *confundido*"


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## elpoderoso

yes thanks i'll try not to make that mistake again or some people will be really confused


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