I love you?
Is 'Te Quiero" the same as "Te Amo"? I know they both mean "I love you" but is there a stronger meaning for one than the other. Like in English, if you say "I love you" it is much more heartfelt than "Love ya" which is more of a friendly phrase.
5 Answers
I think I have this right:
Te amo is the literal translation for "I love you" and it has quite a strong meaning, whereas "te quiero" is less strong.
You can "querer" a lot more things than you can "amar".
Hello Rjmullis and welcome to the SpanishDict forum
Te amo is stronger than te quiero. I was talking to Dakie, who is a native from Mexico, in Skype last saturday about the use of these two verbs (querer and amar) amongst other topics of Spanish. This is my understanding from what he shared:
Te amo is much stronger It is talking about a romantic love and is only used between people who are married, engaged or seriously dating with a view to getting married. In otherwords it is used between lovers who to express a deep commitment to each other.
Te quiero is used between friends who know each other well and between family. It is speaking more of a friendly tie of affection than romantic love. Children and parents use te quiero.
Querer is also the verb to wish/want.
I hope this helps
Yes, Te amo is a lot deeper, serious, and (depending on the origin of the person receiving these words) it can seem a bit too dramatic (soap-opera-ish, romance-novelesque, 1940's-romance-movie-y, etc); Te amo is also only used for romantic relationships (not friends!). Te quiero can be used with anybody: relatives, friends, significant other, dog, etc.
Other people have already given good answers, but I just wanted to add that there's a song that goes, "te queda pequeña la frase 'te quiero', por eso mis labios te dicen 'te amo'." The phrase "te amo" is a lot stronger and only for romantic love, while "te quiero" can be used for any type of love.
Te amo is probably stronger because quiero is also want.
