How to Say Love in Cantonese (And Why 我愛你 Isn't What You Think)

You want to say love in Cantonese. Maybe you're dating someone from Hong Kong. Maybe you're watching a Cantonese drama and you're tired of not knowing what people are saying when things get romantic. Or maybe you just searched "how to say love in Cantonese" and landed here.

Here's the thing: if you just memorize 我愛你 (ngo5 oi3 nei5) and call it a day, you're going to sound weird. Not wrong, exactly. Just... off. Like someone who learned English from a textbook and goes around saying "I wish to purchase sustenance" instead of "I'm hungry."

Let me explain what's actually going on with expressing love in the Cantonese language.

The Phrase You Actually Need: 我鍾意你

Look, 我愛你 (ngo5 oi3 nei5) is technically the direct translation of "I love you" in Cantonese. The two characters are right there: 我 (I) + 愛 (oi3, love) + 你 (you). But here's what nobody tells you upfront: Cantonese speakers almost never say 我愛你 verbally.

It's too formal. Too intense. It's the kind of phrase people may say in a super serious moment after dating for years, or maybe in a wedding vow. Using it on a regular Tuesday is like proposing marriage when you meant to suggest getting coffee.

What people actually say—the way to say love that native speakers use—is 我鍾意你 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 nei5).

The literal meaning is "I like you." But functionally? It's how you express your feelings of romantic love in everyday Cantonese. It's what you say when you're dating someone, when you want to confess your strong feelings, when you're in the early stages of a relationship. It conveys real affection without the weight of 我愛你.

The breakdown of this phrase:

You can also use 鍾意 for things you like: 我鍾意食蛋撻 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 sik6 daan6 taat1) means "I like egg tarts." But when you say it to your loved one in a romantic context, everyone knows the real meaning.

How to Pronounce Love in Cantonese (Tones Matter)

Cantonese is a tonal Chinese language. If you've dealt with Mandarin tones before, buckle up—Cantonese has nine tones instead of four. And yes, you need to pronounce them correctly, or you'll be saying something completely different.

The numbers you see after each syllable (like ngo5, oi3, nei5) indicate which tone to use. Cantonese uses the Jyutping romanization system, which is basically like Pinyin for Mandarin but for the Cantonese language.

For 我鍾意你 (ngo5 zung1 ji3 nei5):

If you mess up the pronunciation on these tones, you're not going to accidentally insult someone's mother or anything dramatic. But native speakers might not understand what you're trying to say at all.

This is why learning how to say these Cantonese phrases from real content matters. You need to hear the pronunciation in context, repeatedly, from native speakers. Textbooks can show you the tone numbers, but they can't give you the muscle memory of what tone 3 actually sounds like in a sentence.

Cantonese Culture and Expressing Love

Here's something that trips up a lot of language learners: Cantonese culture and Chinese culture in general are way more reserved about verbal declarations of love than Western cultures.

Older Chinese people especially? They basically never say "I love you" out loud. They show affection through actions—cooking for you, taking care of you when you're sick, spending time with their loved ones. Words are considered less important than what you do.

Younger people, influenced by Western media and international culture, are getting more comfortable expressing love verbally. But even then, you'll hear the phrase 我鍾意你 way more often than 我愛你.

This is pretty different from how romantic phrases work in Mandarin, by the way. Mandarin speakers use 我愛你 (wǒ ài nǐ) more readily, especially in writing. Cantonese speakers? They're just more colloquial and subtle about the whole thing.

More Cantonese Love Phrases and Vocabulary

If you want to learn Cantonese expressions beyond the basic phrase, here are some other ways to say you care about that special person:

我好鍾意你 (ngo5 hou2 zung1 ji3 nei5) = "I really like you"
This is another way to say it with more intensity. The 好 (hou2) makes the expression stronger.

我愛你啊 (ngo5 oi3 nei5 aa3) = "I love you"
Adding the particle 啊 (aa3) at the end softens the phrase and makes it more affectionate. It creates more intimacy and sounds less like you're reciting from a vocabulary list.

我掛住你 (ngo5 gwaa3 zyu6 nei5) = "I miss you"
Sometimes Cantonese speakers express their feelings indirectly. Saying you miss someone is a heartfelt way to convey you care without being too direct.

你喺我心目中好重要 (nei5 hai2 ngo5 sam1 muk6 zung1 hou2 zung6 jiu3) = "You mean so much to me"
Again, indirect but meaningful. This phrase may be used when you want to say something deep without using the word 愛 (ai).

你係我嘅陽光 (nei5 hai6 ngo5 ge3 joeng4 gwong1) = "You are my sunshine"
A poetic way to express how your loved one makes you feel.

Cantonese Terms of Endearment

For terms of endearment to use with your loved one, these Cantonese words are common:

These phrases you can use will definitely impress native speakers and show you understand Cantonese culture.

Don't Confuse Cantonese with Mandarin Chinese

Quick side note: Cantonese and Mandarin are not the same Chinese language. They're both Chinese languages, sure. They use the same writing system (mostly). But they're about as similar as Spanish and Italian—related, but not mutually intelligible as a dialect would be.

If you want to dive deeper into whether Cantonese is a language or a dialect, we've got a whole post on that. But for now, just know: the Mandarin phrases won't work in Cantonese. The characters might be the same, but the pronunciation is completely different.

Mandarin "I love you" = 我愛你 (wǒ ài nǐ)
Cantonese "I love you" = 我愛你 (ngo5 oi3 nei5)

See? Same characters, totally different pronunciation. The Cantonese language has its own phonetic system.

Learn Cantonese from Real Content (Not Textbooks)

Look, you can memorize these Cantonese phrases right now. Write down the Chinese vocabulary, practice saying them out loud, drill the tones. That's fine for a start.

But here's the reality: if you want to actually speak Cantonese in real conversations—romantic or otherwise—you need to learn from real content. Not textbooks. Not apps that treat Chinese vocabulary like flashcards. Real Cantonese that actual Chinese people speak.

That means Cantonese shows, movies, YouTube videos, podcasts. Stuff where you hear these expressions like 我鍾意你 in context, where you pick up on the subtle differences between formal and casual phrases, where you start to internalize what tone 3 sounds like without having to think about it.

A traditional language tutor might teach you proper grammar, but they won't give you the natural flow of how people actually talk to their loved ones on Valentine's Day or any regular day.

Migaku's built for exactly this kind of language learning. You watch or read real Cantonese content—whatever you're actually interested in, whether that's dramas or cooking shows or whatever—and the browser extension lets you look up Cantonese words instantly. Click on 鍾意, and you get the definition, the pronunciation, example sentences. Add it to your spaced repetition deck with one click.

The mobile app syncs everything, so you're reviewing this Chinese vocabulary on your commute or whenever you've got five minutes. And because you learned 我鍾意你 from an actual scene where someone confessed their feelings (not from a vocabulary list), you remember it. You know when to say it. You know how to pronounce it like a native speaker would.

If you're serious about learning Cantonese—or honestly, any Chinese language—immersion with real content is the only thing that actually works long-term. You'll pick up not just how to say love in Cantonese, but how Cantonese speakers actually express affection in dozens of different situations.

Give Migaku a try, there's a 10-day free trial so you can see if it clicks for you.