How to be romantic in Spanish -

Spanish warm up!

Hello my friend! As always, I want to prove to you that you can understand a lot in Spanish using your knowledge of other languages.

I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, don’t worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.

Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!

Llegó San Valentin, también conocido como el día del amor y la amistad.

La verdad es que a mí no me gusta nada este día. No porque no tenga pareja, sino porque no me gusta sentirme obligado a hacer algo solo porque todo el mundo dice que es necesario.

Me encanta el romance, pero a mi ritmo.

Me gusta mucho dar y recibir regalos, por que sí, sin motivos.

¡Y amo los chocolates todos los días del año! No solo el catorce (14) de febrero.

Pero, si tú eres diferente a mí, y sí te gusta celebrar el día de San Valentin, voy a enseñarte algunas frases útiles para ser romantico en español.

¡Ten cuidado! Queremos ser romanticos pero sin ser cursis.

Useful words:

Llegó– He/She/It arrived

conocido como– to be known as

amor y amistad– love and friendship

La verdad es que – the truth is that…

No porque no tenga– here: Not because I don’t have…

sentirse obligado– to feel obligated or forced

algo– something

decir– to say

Me encanta– I love something

dar y recibir– to give and to receive

regalo– gift

porque sí – Just like that, for no reason

si (no accent) – If (supposition)

algún – some

útil – useful

Ten cuidado – Be careful

sin – without

cursi – cheesy

Today’s lesson!

Valentine’s day is here and I’m sure you have a special someone (friend or more) to whom you want to express your affection (maybe even romantically).

In the hispanic world el día de San Valentin is dedicated to both, friends and partners, and you know we are not ashamed to tell our loved ones how much we love them… But that can be an issue sometimes.

The thing is, we say “I love you” so casually on a daily basis, that if you really want to say something especial you will have to be more cretive than that.

But don’t worry ’cause I came to the rescue!

Let’s go through some phrases that you can use to impress your loved ones without crossing the line and sounding like Shakespeare … or even worse… sounding like a cheesy idiot xD (no offese, I’m one of those)

¿Are you ready?

¡Vamos!

1. Te amo (don’t use this)

Let’s break that down:

Te amo means literally I love you.

In most languages people avoid saying this because It sounds overly emotional and a bit… too much.

In Spanish we use it every day for absolutely everything. So, If you really mean “I love you” like … THAT! … Then don’t say this.

It’s boring and it won’t ’cause the effect you want. (unless you are one of those people who never EVER express much emotions…and the other person knows it)

Pronunciation notes:

Nothing fancy about the pronunciation of this one. Just remember the falling intonation in the last sylable of “amo”

For the grammar freaks: “te” means “to you” and has the function of the direct object.

Note: everything written in “<…>” is an orthographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the syllables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest syllable with an apostrophe ” … ‘ … “. So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/

2. Te quiero

Let’s break that down:

Te quiero also means I love you, but it’s a step down on the level of romanticism.

But don’t take me wrong. It is a really beautiful thing to say to someone, ’cause it means implicitly…”I appreciate you, I love you, you are important to me… and so much more“

It is simply not restricted to couples and family, you can literally say this to anyone you appreciate.

Pronunciation notes:

Remember the combination of <qui and que>?

QU in front of those 2 vowels sound like /k/!

So, we pronounce /te.’kie.ro/

3. Me gustas mucho

Let’s break that down:

Now, me gustas mucho is something you say only to someone that you are attracted to.

It literally means “I like you a lot” and it can mean both, physically or intellectually.

This one you might want to say after a couple dates, or if you want to say it after the first meeting without sounding creepy… you can add a “creo que”:

No se porque, pero creo que me gustas (I’m not sure why, but I think I like you)

Grammar notes:

In this case “me” indicates the indirect object.

The form of this phrase might be a bit confusing for English speakers because, as you may have noticed, the verb is conjugated in the 2nd person singular (you), but that “me” makes it seem as if the subject of the sentence was the 1st person singular (I).

Don’t worry… In English it is very straight forward “I (subject) like (verb) you (direct object)”

In Spanish, just like in german or some romance languages, the verb “to like” works the other way around… “Tú (subject) me (indirect object /to me) gustas (verb conjugated according to the subjec)”

a more accurate translation would be “you make me feel attracted to you”.

If this is too abstract xD do like everybody else… memorize it and move on jajaja

4. Me encantas

Let’s break that down:

Finally my friends… We are on Valentines territory!

Me encantas is a great phrase to say someone who has you acting like a teenager even when you are 60. It literally means “you make me feel enchanted” and it means… man/girl I like everything about you, I think about you all the time and I can’t wait to see you again and squeeze you until you can not breathe xD

Just to clarify… I’m exagerating jajaja but go say this to someone you want to impress… or freak out 😉

Grammar notes:

This verb “encantar” works the same way as “gustar”.

Love it or hate it… ot doesn’t matter…USE IT!

5. Me encanta + something especiffic

Let’s break that down:

Sometimes being more especiffic adds another dimension to what you say.

In this case we will use the same verbes as before “me encanta, me gusta, amo” in combination with something of the other person that we want to compliment:

Me encantan tus ojos – I love your eyes

Me encanta tu mirada – I love your look (the way your eyes look)

Me encantan tus labios – I love your lips

Amo tu sonrisa – I love your smile

Amo pasar tiempo contigo – I love spending time with you

May I confess that I feel a little silly writing this lesson and realising how much I have actually used this in real life dating situations? xD

6. Hoy te ves preciosa (to a girl)

Let’s break that down:

Hoy te ves + an adjective (pick something that is not generic… never with “bonita or guapo”)

Hoy te ves means “today you look …” and I would combine it with some rare adjectives for complimenting like preciosa (wonderful – girl), fantástica (fantastic – girl), increíble (incredible -boys and girls), más guapO que nunca (more handsome than ever), más guapA que nunca (more beautiful than ever), guapísimo/a

This is used to compliment phisical features, so be careful, ’cause in the wrong context some pleople could not accept your compliment and answer something dumb instead….like “do you mean I normally don’t look good?!”