"Te quiero" or "te amo"?
Wednesday July 21, 2004
Both "te quiero" and "te amo" are ways of saying "I love you." But do they mean the same thing? Native Spanish speakers weight in on the matter in our forum. Learn more...
Discuss
Recent Comments
Community Forum
Explore Spanish Language
Must Reads
By Category
- Learn Spanish Grammar
- Spanish Pronunciation
- Written Spanish
- Spanish Language Schools
- Spanish-Language Culture
- Spanish Vocabulary
- In the News
- Spanish-Language Literature
- Entertainment in Spanish
- History of Spanish
- Spanish-Language Products
- Translation Resources
- Spanish for Travelers
- Tips for Learning Spanish
- Teaching Resources
About.com Special Features
How to Ace the GRE
Being well prepared is the first step; here are more essential suggestions. More >
The Business School Lowdown
Everything from choosing a school and applying, to employment after graduation. More >
©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved.
Comments
te quiero” has a wider meaning than “te amo”. amar is to love in a romantic(hormonal or whatever you want) way, whereas querer can be the love you have for your friends, your family but also for lovers. in fact, the 2 are quite differents i don’t know how you can’t live with the words for expressing this. there is many people that i love-quiero, but i don’t think i’ve ever loved-amado somebody
OK, LET’S SEE IT IS VERY CONFUSING, BECAUSE YOU CAN USE BOTH OF THEM TO MEAN THE SAME THING. IT DEPENDS TO WHO YOU ARE SAYING IT TO. FOR ME, TE QUIERO IS LESS THAN TE AMO. THE WORD AMAR IS A STRONGER FEELING, I TRANSLATE TE QUIERO AS I WANT YOU. TE AMO AS I LOVE YOU. TE QUIERO AT TIMES, FOR ME, IS LIKE YOU WANT TO POSES SOMEONE. IT’S VERY CONFUSING SO I’LL JUST STOP! LOL
hola!! cuando se dice TE KIERO es para expresar afecto ya sea entre amigos pareja familia etc…pero TE AMO es cuando se quiere muchoooo es lo mas que se puede querer y casi siempre es para la pareja..pero tambien se dice TE ADORO te kiero MUCHO/DEMACIADO……en fin hay muchas formas de expesar afecto en español y eso es lo bueno de este idioma–>The Best One!! jaja
Saying Te quiero is used more for friends, family, but te amo is more for couples. I’ve never said te amo to my mom, but many parents say te amo to their children.
Estoy de acuerdo con lo de “te Amo” I like the fact we can say “te quiero” to our significant other without making the BIG I LOVE YOU!!! Who wants to rush into that. How nice to be able to say “te quiero” and be so tender about it. heehee.
I translate Te Quiero as I care for you and Te Amo as i LOve you (baby making time)
thats it.
well see i think te quiero is like … “i like you” and te amo is “i love you” i think they are sometimes missunderstood because i would never use te amo when im with my girlfriend because for spanish speaking people te amo is a very strong feeling so you dont go on saying it to anyone… once you say te amo is because you really mean it… as opposite to I LOVE YOU in english ive heard everyone say i love you and they dont say it with the same emphasis as it should be… i think they say i love you subtituing i like you because i like you in english does not sound as romantic as it would in spanish….
In Spain, “te quiero” is what you say to your lover. “te amo” is seen as a cheesy Valentine’s Day card phrase and nobody uses it.
I like to say “Te Amo” to my friends also, it is used to express a deapest love for someone… is more than “Te quiero” … and harder to say.
te quiero, is simply an “i care for you” and te amo, is “i love you”. But for me, for some odd reason, te amo seems more realistic and a strong phrase in spanish than it does in english. It seems to have a deeper meaning in spanish than in english. Maybe it’s because people just throw it around whenever they feel like it in english, but once it’s said in spanish, you know it’s something real.
Te quiero is something I would say to friends. Te amo is strictly for my fiance.
never confuse the two….te amo..is FAR more powerful…i know, i nearly broke the ankle of a friend 3000 miles away when i typed te amo to her.
Hello,
I feel that te quiero means “I love you” and te amo means “I’m IN love with you”….
It really depends on the culture, and the person. However, for me, te amo is on a higher level than te quiero. For example, te quiero can be said to many people, while te amo is reserved for a set number of people. Te quiero can encompass family members, friends, boyfriends, etc. Actually, I just got off the phone with my gma and she said to me “te amo” which I reciprocated. I have a very strong relationship with my grandmother, so it goes to show that te amo isn’t reserved for lovers. to me though, te quiero seems more intimate and te amo is…the kind of phrase you’ll hear in the after-school novelas. on a regular basis, i use te quiero more than te amo.
to me “te quiero” is just in the present something that i feel now but not necessarely will be the same tomorrow, but “te amo” is somthing everlasting, never change no matter what, te quiero is more defy as caring, and liking, te amo is something that no every accomplish in a life span.
It’s so pointless looking for the answer. Everywhere you look, someone will tell you one thing, and then another’s answer will totally contradict it. translate.google.com (which seems to be the best online translator by far — seeing as they’re all crap!) translates “te amo” and “te quiero” to “I love you”.
I think the key is body language. Learn to read it well, seeing as actions speak louder than words
Querer y amar no es igual
hay que saber la diferencia
en el amor, el sentimiento es mas profundo
querer es mas superficial
el que quiere, muestra afecto
el que ama, lo hace de corazón
te quiero usually mean i want, u know lyk taco bell, Te quiero Taco Bell??? yeah most hispanics say te amo, well i only really know about dominicans, im dominican so yeah, te amo
I think that “Te amo” is for your boyfriend, or your mother, or for your best friend. And “Te quiero” you can say to your dog, to your friends, to a person which you are starting a love-relationship, but it’s just that. When you say “te amo” is pure love. If you say “te amo” you are expressing that you really love that person, he/she could be your best friend, your mother, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your husbin, but not a teacher or a person who said hi to you on the street
I say “te amo” to my boyfriend..
and I say “te quiero” to.. my friends, my dog, mi brother…
bye!
Well Te Amo and te quiero are just different deppending on how u use it. Te amo is saying I LOVE YOU, like real UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and is usually used in couples. Te quiero is like saying “i care about you” and is used from family to couples, its like people say now LOVE YA feels different from I LOVE YOU.