Confused about LOVE

[Julie]

Does "te quiero" mean I love you, or I want you? For that matter, what is the proper way to say "I love you", and is there a difference in how I'd say it to family as opposed to romantic love? And querer?? I'm confused, please help!

[sosia]

All you need is love!!

"I love you" is (yo)"te amo". It involves share your live with the other person. It 's the old, romantic,possessionable and exclusive way. Love without terms. But much more difficult to say it's "Quieres casarte conmigo" (Will you marry me?)

"I want you" is..... "Te deseo". I can't find a better one. It's a relationship without love, only for sexual satisfaction. Others (tú)"me gustas" (I like you) or "Quiero estar contigo " (I want to be with you) or "yo quiero contigo" (Mexican-> sexual)

"(yo) te quiero"
Yor your wife,man,life-partner: "I love you"
for the family (grandma, mom, ...): " I love you" (familiar-love)

But "querer" ist not so "strong" as "amar":
Amar is total love. Better the happiness of the other person than mine.
"Querer" is more personal, demand love to the other person for the own hapiness/satisfaction.

Both terms are often synonymous, but in a soap-opera "yo te quiero" can be "I love you" or " I want you for my own pleasure/interest" so often comes misunderstandings. "le dije que la quería, no que la amaba" (I told her that I
liked her, not that I loved her"


Hope it helps

song by José José:

Casi todos sabemos querer
pero pocos sabemos amar
es que amar y querer no es igual
amar es sufrir querer es gozar.

El que ama pretende sentir
el que ama su vida la da
y el que quiere pretende vivir
y nunca sufrir y nunca sufrir.

El que ama no puede pensar
todo lo da, todo lo da.
El que quiere pretende olvidar
y nunca llorar, nunca llorar
el querer pronto puede acabar
el amor no conoce el final
es que todos sabemos querer
pero pocos sabemos amar.

El amar es el cielo y la luz
el amar es total plenitud
es el mar que no tiene final
es la gloria y la paz,
es la gloria y la paz.
El querer es la carne y la flor
es buscar el obscuro rincón
es morder, arañar y besar
es deseo fugaz
es deseo fugaz.

El que ama no puede pensar
todo lo da, todo lo da.
El que quiere pretende olvidar
y nunca llorar, nunca llorar
el querer pronto puede acabar
el amor no conoce el final
es que todos sabemos querer
pero pocos sabemos amar. </font>

[Tomisimo]

Sosia already covered it pretty well, but I'll throw in my $0.02 as well.

The most "normal" way for saying "I love you" (in my experiences) is te quiero or te quiero mucho, or even abbreviated as TQM. Even though the verb querer means to want, in this usage it does not mean I want you. Like sosia mentions, "I want you" in a sexual sense would be te deseo (I desire you).

To use "I want you" with different meanings, such as

"I want you here at 9:00 AM sharp tomorrow so we can get started on this project"

would be:

Quiero que estés aquí mañana a las 9:00 AM en punto para que empecemos con este proyecto.

The main difference (in my mind) between te amo and te quiero is that te amo is more of a deep, committed, eternal love, and te quiero is simply I love you.

[Julie]

Gracias Sosia y Tomismo! This is a great help and I appreciate you.

[Neophyte]

Cool I saw TQM in some writing and I was wondering what it meant... Thx.

[sosia]

I must say that I wrote it trying to give differences between "amar" y "querer", but like Tomissimo says, saying "te quiero" is the common way. I say my wife "te quiero mucho" everyday and write SMS with TQM. Saying "te amo" is only for very romantic days or in ironic days
Also when my wifes says to me "te quiero en casa a las 1:00" is only "I want you to be here at 1:00" and it's not a sexually intenttion