Last Updated on October 14, 2021 by admin

8 Expressions “I love you” in Japanese Language

8 Expressions Do Japanese people also say “I love you?” or “I like you”? How do Japanese people express their love? Many foreign people believe Japanese are shy and do not express their love directly. Well, today our native Japanese teachers will tell you the Japan culture as well as the language between Japanese and English. Hope you will know more deep about Culture of Japan and how to express your love to a native Japanese.

First let’s see the language difference between English and Japanese.

“I love you” in English is very straight forward, the sentence structure follows the rule【subject + verb + object】. However many foreigners may hear about “好きだ”(sukida) or “好きです”(suki desu) quite often in Japanese Drama or Japanese Anime. Yes you are right, in Japanese we only say Verb, usually omit Subject and Object. Why? Then we will talk about the Japanese culture now. So you will have more deep understanding the cultural behind the Japanese language.

We are listing several different expressions “I love you” in Japanese according to the person’s characters.

Direct way and Indirect way of saying “I love you” or “I like you” in Japanese

Direct Ways of saying “I love you” in Japanese

1)「付き合ってください」
Romaji：tsukiatte kudasai
English：Please date (with me) as a couple

Note：Omit（with me), unlike the western countries, casual dating is quite common, if you say「付き合ってください」(tsukiatte kudasai) which means dating as a couple

2)「好き」
Romaji：suki
English：(I) love or like（you）

Note：Omit（I）and（you），this Japanese verb word「好き」(suki) can also express like doing something or like some food etc. Verb「好き」(suki) is Quite common used.

3)「好きです。付き合ってください」
Romaji：suki desu, tsukiatte kudasai
English：（I）love（you），please date（with me）as a couple

Note：This sentence combines「好き」(suki) and「付き合ってください」(tsukiatte kudasai), sounds more formal

4)「友達としてじゃなく、彼女としてそばにいてくれませんか」
Romaji：tomodachi toshite janakute, kanojyo toshite sobani ite kuremasenka
English：Not only friendship, can you be my girlfriend and stay with me? (In Japanese language the word for “girlfriend” is the same as “she”)

Note：This expression is more indirect

5)「好きです。彼女になってください」
Romaji：suki desu, kanojyo ni natte kudasai
English：（I）like or love（you), please become（my）girlfriend.

Note：This expression is more direct

Indirect Ways of saying “I love you” in Japanese

1)「何があっても守る」
Romaji：nani ga atte mo mamoru
English：No matter what is happening, (I will) protect (you).

Note：Here again omit subject（I will）and object（you）

Romantic Way of saying “I love you” in Japanese

2)「月がきれいですね」
Romaji：tsuki ga kirei desu ne
English：Today’s moon is beautiful

Note：This sentence literarily means “moon is beautiful”, is not saying “I love you” and “I like you”, however this is indirect way and romantic way of saying “I love you” in Japanese.

This is a story about Sōseki Natsume (夏目漱石), he is a renowned Japanese novelist, when he was a English teacher who is teaching English in Japan, when he saw his student directly translating “I love you” in Japanese, he supposedly said, “Japanese people never say things like that shamelessly. You’d better translate it as 月がきれいですね (tsuki ga kirei desu ne)

If you are saying 月がきれいですね (tsuki ga kirei desu ne) to a Japanese friend, which shows you are understanding more Japanese culture deelply.

3)「このままの関係でいいんですか？」
Romaji：kono mama no kankei de iin desu ka
English：Is it really good to keep the same relationship as it is?

Note：This expression usually female says to the males

Above 8 Expressions “I love you” in Japanese Language, according to the different situations, where to say and individual person’s characters, it can be colloquial style or with “desu” or “masu” style

14th Feb Valentine’s Day every year, in many western countries the males will give a gift to express the love to their female lovers. However in Japan it is opposite, females are feeling shy to express their feelings, so they will give their handmade chocolate cakes to the only one guy to express their love on Valentine’s Day in Japan.

The male colleagues at the same work place usually receive the「義理チョコ」（Giri choco）from the females for friendship, gratitude, or indebtedness.

A month later, on White Day 14th March, all the males who received presents must return the favour.

Written by Hong Kong Japanese Tutor Team

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