Thread: Te quiero / Te amo

Hello! I'm back with another question...

Okay so all of a sudden I'm confused about something that I thought I had gotten over being confused about YEARS ago!!!

So up until the last few days this was my interpretation of te amo / te quiero... te amo is always romantic love and te quiero can be used for any kind of love. However, if you use te quiero in a romantic way it does NOT mean any less than te amo. In fact I thought te quiero was used more often and te amo was more of a poetic type thing... from movies and whatnot.

But now all of a sudden I've read some stuff on the internet (lol and i don't know what to trust.. hence my confusion) that says te amo is much stronger than te quiero. So maybe a young relationship would use te quiero but it doesn't mean you're IN LOVE with the person... you just like them. And after a bit when you are actually in love you would switch to te amo...

Sooooo... is this true? And if people find it true is it the type of thing where someone expecting / wanting a "te amo" should be disappointed with a "te quiero?" Seems kinda odd to me...

And then one other thing: I also read that te quiero mucho is even LESS meaningful than just plain old te quiero. Is this true???? I had never heard this and would think it would be a bit stronger seeing as you add the "mucho."

Okay, sorry this is so long... but hopefully I got all the important/relevant information in! The context is BOLIVIA... not sure if there's any Bolivians around but I'm sure someone's got at least general Latin American knowledge.

Thanks!

Edit: Sorry, just thought of one thing to add. Let's say the person saying either "te quiero" or "te amo" says "te quiero preciosa." Doesn't the preciosa come with implications that make it impossible for the te quiero to be unromantic?

Laurana, al menos en Argentina en el lenguaje hablado, "te amo" prácticamente no se usa, salvo en las telenovelas. Suena un poco artificial, quizás las parejas jóvenes lo usen en momentos de romanticismo, pero no es lo habitual. En cartas de amor, poemas y esas cosas, "te amo" es más frecuente, pero al menos en mi país hay que tener muy en cuenta el contexto, porque puede sonar algo cursi.

"Te quiero" y "te quiero mucho" son equivalentes, quizás un poquito más expresivo "te quiero mucho", en todo caso nunca menos. En un chat o una carta, por ejemplo se puede poner "te quiero mucho, mucho" para reforzar el concepto, ya sea hablando de amor romántico o de cariño entre parientes o amigos . No estoy hablando de lo gramatical o estilísticamente correcto sino de cómo usamos aquí esa expresión. Espero haber sido de ayuda.

Edit: Acabo de ver tu edit. En términos generales, estás en lo cierto, preciosa da la idea de amor romántico, pero se me ocurren situaciones donde podría ser usado sin esa implicancia. Por ejemplo un padre puede decirle a su hija "te quiero, preciosa", y es totalmente correcto y paternal. También entre mujeres solemos piropearnos mucho en Argentina.

I agree with Moni, In spoken language: "amar" is barely used and it may sound a bit out of fashion or exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that some authors have made a relevant distinction between “querer” and “amar”. They have attributed “querer” to a mere desire (carnal love), while “amar” has been attributed to unconditional love…. which implies more than just liking the person, and wanting to be with that person – this feeling goes beyond romantic infatuation , and implies caring for that someone and even feeling happy just seeing that someone being happy.

Hope it heldps

Originally Posted by Moni

Quizás en otros países sea distinto, y sería muy interesante leer más comentarios al respecto.

Comparto tu opinión moni, solo resalté otros criterios. Y como ejemplo de los mismos te mando el link de la letra de una canción que expresa la diferencia (según el autor) entre el amar y el querer.

Espero la disfrutes, se que discreparás del contenido , pero aún así probablemente encuentres la letra bonita

Best regards

http://www.gettherhythm.com/p/pepe_a...el_querer.html

OMG! I do not agree or disagree with any of the posts here, I just want to say something that comes from my experience. My husband says "Te amo" todo el tiempo but my best friend's husband says "Te quiero" to her, to express the same. I don't think my husband loves me more than her husband loves her. I think it's a matter of the individual, the environment they grew up in and has to do a lot with the society and the education.
A lot of people I know find ridiculous to hear someone say Te amo and I am sure they really either AMAN or HAN AMADO someone but their way to express it is different, so they just say TE QUIERO but the TE AMO is implicit. If they add MUCHO, of course it's got a deeper meaning, I LOVE YOU A LOT/VERY MUCH.
The only thing I do not agree with is the view my friend Hebe has pointed out here from some authors. Te quiero does not really involve carnal love. I woud use Te deseo instead. But again, that was the opinion of other authors.
The rest is fine, if somebody tells you Te quiero preciosa, it means that the person loves you but more than that, he finds you beautiful, lovely. !!!

Una vez mas coincido plenamente con ustedes chicas... yo soy una a las que la palabra "te amo" le suena como a telenovela... me es mas fácil decir te quiero mucho ..

Éste no deja de ser un tema complejo .. sobre todo porque hay muchos tipos de amor .. el llamado Ágape (EL AMOR DE DIOS ), el amor filio , el amor eros etc. Pero creo que mi amiga Sandi tocó un punto muy importante... la forma de manifestarlo es muy individual y también puede estar influenciada por aspectos culturales. Supongo que hay quienes pueden experimentar sentimientos muy profundos y ser totalmente incapaces de manifestarlos o por lo menos manifestarlos de la forma en que lo haría la mayoría de las personas – también hay quienes manifiestan cariño dándole a la otras persona un golpetazo en la cabeza (jaja)