To Love – To Like – To Enjoy - To be in love

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The English language uses the verb to love for many things ; you can say "I love you" to someone, or that you love chocolate, or "oh, yes, I loooooove Denise, my best friend". In French, we also use the verb aimer for all these meanings, with a big twist though. Learn how not to make a very embarrassing mistake.

To talk about friendship, or likes and dislikes, use the verb détester or aimer with an adverb, or the verb adorer. Remember, these adverbs will go directly after the verb or the pas.

Je déteste Paul	I hate Paul
Je déteste le chocolat	I hate chocolate
Je n’aime pas Paul	I don’t like/love Paul/I am not in love with Paul
Je n’aime pas le chocolat	I don’t like chocolate
Je n’aime pas beaucoup Paul	I don’t like Paul very much
Je n’aime pas beaucoup le chocolat	I don’t like chocolate very much
J’aime assez Paul	I kind of like Paul
J’aime assez nager	I kind of enjoy swimming
J’aime bien Paul	I like Paul
J’aime bien nager	I enjoy swimming
J’aime beaucoup Paul	I like Paul very much
J’aime beaucoup nager	I like swimming a lot
J’adore Paul	I’m very fond of Paul – I think he’s great
J’adore nager	I love to swim

To say to be in love with someone, use the construction Aimer + person’s name, without any adverb.

Compare :

J’aime Paul	I am in love with Paul (love)
J’aime bien Paul	I like Paul (friendship)
J’aime beaucoup Paul	I like Paul a lot (friendship)
J'adore Paul	I looooove Paul (friendship)

Exception ; you can use aimer without an adverb with your immediate family (parents, siblings, children, pets) to say that you love them (not that you are in love with them), but NEVER with your friends.

To say I am in love with him/her say Je l'aime.
To say I like him/her say Je l'aime bien.
To say I like it (something), say J'aime ça.