Thread: I Love

This is confusing me. I know two words that mean love.

Amor
Encanta

From what I can gather, amor is a noun, as if I was talking about my love as if it was an object. Encanta (which I think is encantar) is a verb, as to actualy love something.

So if I was going to say, "I love Spanish," I would think that I would say, "Yo encanto Espanol." But google translates that to, "I charm Spanish."

My dictionary says, "Eso me encanta" means "I love that." Could someone maybe explain this phrase to me? Grammar wise that is?

Sorry about all the questions but I have to ask if I want to be able to one day speak Spanish fluently.

Originally Posted by arcticfire

This is confusing me. I know two words that mean love.

Amor
Encanta

From what I can gather, amor is a noun, as if I was talking about my love as if it was an object. Encanta (which I think is encantar) is a verb, as to actualy love something.

So if I was going to say, "I love Spanish," I would think that I would say, "Yo encanto Espanol." But google translates that to, "I charm Spanish."

My dictionary says, "Eso me encanta" means "I love that." Could someone maybe explain this phrase to me? Grammar wise that is?

Sorry about all the questions but I have to ask if I want to be able to one day speak Spanish fluently.

Amar is "to love", but "encantar" no. "Encantar" is, depending on the context, "to like" (I like ice-creams, me encanta el helado), or "to charm" (that dress is charming, ese vestido es encantador).
You can use "querer" instead of "amar" (yo quiero a Lucy, I love Lucy), but it also means want, so be careful on the context.

Hi! Let's see if this helps! Hope so!

Love as a noun is AMOR, no doubt and as a verb:
I love Mary - Amo a Mary, meaning I'm in love with her, I like her and I love her
I love icecream - Me encanta el helado - meaning I like it very very very much

When you refer to people you can translate it "amar" o "querer"
When you refer to thing you can translatate it as "encantar", me encanta
Ex. I love going to the cinema! Me encanta ir al cine

Any questions? Hope you get it

Originally Posted by arcticfire

Ok, so:

Me encanta hablar español.

would be I love speaking spanish?

And I would use "amar" or "querer" when I'm talking about a person?

Right!!!!!! You got it!!!!!! I'm so glad!
And yes, you can say "Te amo" o "Te quiero" and both mean that you love that person. The difference is that you generally say "Te amo" to your other half, soul mate, or your son or daughter and "Te quiero" or "Te quiero mucho" to your friends. (Honestly, I can't imagine myself saying "Te amo" to a friend, girl or boy, but I tell them "Te quiero mucho" more often than not)

Best regards

Hello my friend, well, the sentence I love Spanish can be translated in many ways. To use your two words, amor and encanta, you could say YO AMO EL ESPAÑOL, or ME ENCANTA EL ESPAÑOL. Yo can also say ME GUSTA EL ESPAÑOL, using the verb gustar, which is to like. The google translation was terrible. The thing is that the word amor in Spanish, although translated as love, has a very strong romantic, amorous emphasis than in English, so, you can say I love to cook, I love to go to the beach...and so on, while in Spanish, for those things you'd better use the verb "gustar", which means, as I said, to like. Encantar is kind of similar to gustar, but in my view it is a bit more, let's say, enthusiastic. You can tell a person you like TU ME ENCANTAS, and it will not mean you love him or her, but just that you like that person.So, summarizing, the meaning of the word amor is definitely stronger in Spanish.

I think all the answers were very clarifying, yet I'll contribute with my 2 cents. Besides the fact the word amar carries stronger connotations in Spanish, something that hasn't been said is that in Spanish, just like in Italian and maybe other languages too. In English I love it/I like it - "I" is the agent, the subject, while in Spanish esto me encanta/esto me gusta - "I" is the receiver, the object of the action, that is, in Spanish instead of I love it, we say something like this delights me/this makes me like it etc, etc... Good luck with your Spanish studies!