What is the difference between "te quiero" and "te amo"?

Question

I know they both mean I love you somehow, but i don't get the difference.

Answer 1

This has been asked many times in this forum. Try searching for it and you might save yourself some time. For now you can refer to this older post by clicking here.

if a person uses "te quiero" instead of "te deseo", is it easy to evade or misunderstood the meaning? - swing, May 8, 2010

Answer 2

For me they can both be used interchangeably but "te quiero" can also be used with the sense of physically desiring someone.

The Beatles catch that here: It's not a love song.

link text

Answer 3

My understandng of it is that "Te quiero" means "I like you" (such as you would say to a boyfriend/girlfriend) and "Te amo" means "I love you" (as you would say to a spouse). However, I have not checked out the link already mentioned on this thread, so perhaps I am not entirely correct. This is what I remember my native Puerto Rican father telling me, though.

I hear many people, including Puerto Ricans in the U.S., say "te quiero" to their spouses. So maybe it's a regoinal thing? - --Mariana--, May 8, 2010