Choosing to dedicate love phrases in Spanish to your significant other or to a previously secret love can be the winning card to win their heart: but which ones should you use to avoid coming across as banal?
Here are 10 Spanish love quotes that perfectly express the most important feeling of all. For each, you'll also find the corresponding translation and the appropriate context.
Let's start with one of the most beautiful phrases the Spanish language can boast, written by Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer and poet who worked primarily in the fantasy genre.
The sentence is as follows: Being contigo or not being contigo is the medicine of my time .
Translation: "To be with you or not to be with you is the measure of my time."
It's part of a poem called El amenazado (The Threatened One), and expresses in a few simple words the importance of time spent with a loved one. When they're there, it's time well spent; when they're gone, their absence is the only thing we can focus on.
There are some loves that seem to end, that make you cry and suffer, but that in reality remain alive and strong like a flame that never wants to go out. There's a quote by Miguel de Cervantes that can help express this feeling:
No love lost among us.
Its translation is: "There is no love wasted between us," and it's very helpful in describing a love that's hard to die. And one that may cause suffering, but it certainly helps us feel alive, to face the world and move forward with hope in our hearts. In short, it's never wasted.
There's a Spanish love phrase everyone knows, and just saying it makes you feel inexplicable emotions. It goes like this:
I want to do what spring does with the flowers .
The translation is: " I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees ," and dedicating it is a demonstration of love far greater than many ostentatious gestures. This is because the spectacle of the cherry trees in bloom in spring is something incredible, and indeed only those who love can truly appreciate it.
We can thank Chilean poet Pablo Neruda for this-and many other-beautiful Spanish love quotes: another memorable one from his pen is "Para mi corazón basta tu pecho, para tu libertad bastan mis alas," which means "your chest is enough for my heart, my wings are enough for your freedom."
We've always instinctively compared our loved ones to the stars: perhaps because they shine, perhaps because the starry sky at night offers such a breathtaking spectacle... So why not do it in Spanish too?
A phrase like: " In the sky there are millions of stars, in my life there is only one, and that is you ," which we translate as "In the sky there are millions of stars, in my life there is only one, and that is you," can make our loved one feel how much we care. It reminds them that there is nothing, in our eyes, more beautiful and more important.
Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is a must-see when discussing Spanish love quotes. Beyond painting, Frida left her mark on the world with her passionate and heartbreaking love poems, some of which have gone down in history as truly unforgettable, capable of melting even the hardest of hearts.
The one we are talking about now is the following:
Here you need to give yourself everything that you will never be able to hold, and you will never know the wonder that it is possible to love you .
Translation: I wish I could give you everything you've ever had, and even then you wouldn't know how wonderful it is to be able to love you.
Dedicating this love phrase in Spanish will allow the person you love to feel how strong your feelings are for them, and how grateful you are every day for even the chance to love them, considering this opportunity a privilege.
Especially if it's a first love, the person you're with is allowing you to explore and fully understand this feeling, which was previously unknown to you. A sentence to express this concept:
If you know what love is, it's thanks to you.
Simply: "If I know what love is, it's thanks to you."
In love, the kind that's true, deep, and sincere, there's no embarrassment: you can be silent without feeling uncomfortable, and share even-and especially-the saddest and most uncertain moments of your life. It's easy to be there when everything's going well, but only those who truly love stay, even during the storm, right?
Thanks to the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez we can express this concept with an extremely evocative phrase:
And if one day we don't have the chance to talk to Nadie, call me… we'll be in silence.
Translated into Italian: "And if one day you don't feel like talking to anyone, call me... We'll be silent."
Sometimes you just want to find a way to express how you feel about that person, how good they make you feel, and thank them for the wonderful feelings they make you feel every time you're together.
There is a love phrase in Spanish that fits this situation:
I don't love you because you were, but because of how you made me feel when you are close to me.
Translation: I don't love you for who you are, but for who you make me be when I'm with you .
Some people simply do us good, and it's right to remind them of it from time to time, to give them credit and make them feel special. Because yes, because they are.
The phrase "you are my happiness" is very sweet, but to avoid being too banal you can replace it with the following:
I realize that there are those who many call happiness.
Translated into Italian it sounds like this: I feel that you are what many call happiness.
Simple, romantic, and impactful: certainly a phrase that touches the heart. After all, knowing you can make someone happy can only make us happy in return, and feel like we've done something good for someone we love.
The next and tenth quote we'll look at isn't originally a Spanish love quote: it's a small "theft" from French literature, and specifically from the writing of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. One of his most famous love quotes has been translated worldwide, and in Spanish it's the following:
Loving is not looking at one another; It's looking at joints in the same direction.
Translation: To love is not to look at each other; to love is to look together in the same direction.
There's no need for much explanation: focusing on the present moment is typical of those experiencing the first moments of falling in love, but a phrase like this represents a more experienced love, of someone who is capable of looking to the future and always seeing the other person by their side.
Finally, it might be helpful to know how to say "amore mio" in Spanish . It's not complicated; in fact, we say it exactly the same way as in Italian, basically. In fact, "amore mio" in Spanish is " Amor m í o ," with the only difference being the accent on the "i," which must be written in Spanish. An example of how it's used might be the sentence:
Felicidades, amor mío = Best wishes, my love
As you might guess, my love in Spanish is mi amor , and it's often used as a filler and nickname to refer to your partner. Some usage examples:
In many other cases, it's replaced by other words: Spaniards are known for using countless nicknames to refer to their boyfriend or girlfriend, and they're certainly also a way to express love in Spanish. Let's look at a few:
Maybe these Spanish love phrases seem a bit overwhelming, and you're looking for something simpler to whisper to your significant other to surprise them in the middle of the day. What's better, then, than a simple " I love you" in Spanish ?
The main translation of "I love you" in Spanish is " te quiero ." It's used for love between couples, for children, or for parents, but also to express affection towards friends. In short, it can also be translated as "I love you," but it's not unusual to use it as "I love you" towards your significant other.
Often, to express the depth of the feeling, it's accompanied by the adverb " mucho ," meaning "very much": " te quiero mucho " is one of the most famous Spanish love phrases around the world! And in reality, " mucho " is often added to take some of the heaviness out of "I love you," paradoxically, to lighten it a bit: in any case, it depends on the context in which it's said.
Alternatively, you can also add the word " demasiado ", which translates as "too much," to quantify a love so great that it is even excessive.
Examples:
To be precise, in Spanish there's also te amo , a much more serious and heartfelt way to express the concept of love. It's never used inappropriately: a Spaniard doesn't say "te amo" lightly , but only when he truly feels it from the bottom of his heart. Between engaged couples, it's usually used on special occasions or in moments of particular emotion, rarely in everyday life when the expression "te quiero" is preferred.
There's also a much lighter version of expressing appreciation, usually limited to physical appearance or just an initial interest, when you're not ready to go too far. We're talking about " me gustas ," which simply means "I like you."
Finally, it might be helpful to know how to say "amore mio" in Spanish . It's not complicated; in fact, we say it exactly the same way as in Italian, basically. In fact, "amore mio" in Spanish is " Amor m í o ," with the only difference being the accent on the "i," which must be written in Spanish. An example of how it's used might be the sentence:
Felicidades, amor mío = Best wishes, my love
As you might guess, my love in Spanish is mi amor , and it's often used as a filler and nickname to refer to your partner. Some usage examples:
In many other cases, it's replaced by other words: Spaniards are known for using countless nicknames to refer to their boyfriend or girlfriend, and they're certainly also a way to express love in Spanish. Let's look at a few:
