Love

Love
 

I have seen a number of different ways to say love, from encantar to amar to querer. Are these words interchangeable, or does their usage depend on context? are there any other words used to express love?

Their usage depends on the context: "amar" implies very strong affection, "querer" has less affection than "amar". However, for some people it's better to use always "querer", because they feel corny the use of "amar". It will depend on the situation and the speaker.
"Encantar" is something different; this is for things that someone likes very much.


- My son loves icecream.
A mi hijo le encanta el helado.

- I love learning languages.
Me encanta aprender idiomas.

- Birds love seeds.
A los pájaros les encantan las semillas.


- Juan ama a sus hijos.
- Juan quiere mucho a sus hijos.
- Juan quiere a sus hijos.
-> In all cases here Juan loves his children, but he wouldn't love them less in any of the sentences; it's just the speaker who chooses how to say it.


- Te amo.
- Te quiero mucho.
- Te quiero.
-> Here, since the person who speaks is the same who feels, the difference of words is relevant. ;)



- Amamos la vida, por eso hacemos ejercicio.
- Queremos la vida, por eso hacemos ejercicio.
-> Here, if we say "amamos", it means we're holding to life. Saying "queremos" has an ambiguous meaning between "we want" and "we love", so this wouldn't be said unless there is a clear context. And we don't say "queremos mucho" because life is not exactly an entity for whom we could express more or less affection.
Yet, we can say "nos encanta la vida, por eso hacemos ejercicio": this would be pretty close to "amamos" in the sense we enjoy life so much that we are clinging to it.

I hope it wasn't too confusing.

Thank you very much for that well-thought out response. It provided a lot of clarification, but I found a couple of points to be confusing. Firstly, in the sentences A mi hijo le encanta el helado and A los pájaros les encantan las semillas, why are you starting the sentence with A? Secondly, I don't understand why you wouldn't be able to say queremos mucho; in English we would be able to say I love life very much, why is this not OK in Spanish? Also, can you think of an example of a clear context in which you would say queremos la vida? Thank you again.

The verb encantar and others like "gustar" have a special construction: the speaker is the indirect object, not the subject of the verb.

You may find useful this thread about the verb "gustar".


As for "querer mucho", it's not that one wouldn't be able to say it, and it's probably a matter of subjective preference, but this use of "querer" is rather used for living beings with whom one develops an affective relationship.
- Quiero mucho a mi perro.
- ¿Quieres mucho a tus hijos?
- Mis hermanos me quieren mucho.


Finally, please note that very few words in Spanish have an exact translation in English. The verb "querer" means "to want" and "to love", and the context in a conversation or in a sentence is what determines its meaning. In the example of my previous post, if there is not a previous conversation about having affection for life, I would most probably understand "querer la vida" as "to want to live".
Anyway, I don't think you'll find this ambiguity too often. :)

Thank you again, but you didn't answer one of my questions.



- My son loves icecream.
A mi hijo le encanta el helado.

- Birds love seeds.
A los pájaros les encantan las semillas.


For these sentences, why did you put A at the beginning of them?

It's the personal "a" rule in Spanish. When the direct object is a person (or a respected non-human like a dog) the person or creature is proceeded with a.

@Poli: This is not personal a, this is an indirect object pronoun. ;)

@Jazz: I did answer it.
The sentences with verbs like "gustar", "encantar", "interesar" and others that express how something makes you feel, must be constructed with an indirect object. Check the link to see examples and explanations for the verb "gustar", which apply to "encantar" as well.