How to Say "I Love You" in Portuguese: Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese (Te Amo vs Amo-Te)

Look, if you're searching for how to say "I love you" in Portuguese, you're probably not just looking for a direct translation. Google Translate can handle that in two seconds.

You want to know the different ways to say I love you depending on context. Whether "te amo" or "amo-te" is correct. Why the Portuguese language has like five different ways to express love that all kinda mean the same thing but also don't.

And honestly? Most resources give you a list of romantic phrases without telling you the stuff that actually matters—like how expressing love in Portuguese too early makes you sound desperate, or how using the wrong variant immediately marks you as a foreigner in the wrong country.

Here's what you actually need to know about love and romance in Portuguese.

The Portuguese Word for "I Love You": Eu Te Amo or Amo-Te?

The straightforward translation of "I love you" in Portuguese is:

Brazilian Portuguese: Eu te amo (or just "te amo") European Portuguese: Eu amo-te (or just "amo-te")

Both mean the same thing. The difference is where you put the pronoun "te" (you).

Brazilians put it before the verb: te amo Portuguese speakers in Portugal put it after the verb with a hyphen: amo-te

This isn't a stylistic choice or regional slang—it's a consistent grammatical difference between Brazilian vs European Portuguese. If you're learning Brazilian Portuguese and you say "amo-te," Portuguese people will understand you, but you'll sound like you learned from a European textbook. Same goes the other way around.

You can drop the "eu" (I) entirely since the verb form already tells you it's first person. Most native speakers do.

Where Most Learners Screw Up: Amar vs Adorar vs Gostar

English speakers learning Portuguese tend to overuse "amar" because we use "love" for everything. You love pizza. You love your mom. You love that new show on Netflix. Same word.

The Portuguese language doesn't work that way. There are different ways to express affection, and they exist on a spectrum:

Gostar (de) — to like This is your baseline. "Gosto de você" (Brazilian) or "gosto de ti" (European) literally means "I like you," but Portuguese speaking people use it in situations where English speakers might casually say "I love you." It's less intense than amar and often used in the early stages of a relationship.

Adorar — to adore Middle ground. Stronger than gostar but not as heavy as amar. You'd use this to express affection for someone's personality, or to say you really like a particular food. "Te adoro" or "adoro-te" is a safer way to express love without the full weight of a declaration of love. If you tell someone you "amo" their cooking on a first date, it's weird. Say you "adoro" it instead.

Amar — to love The real deal. This Portuguese word is reserved for serious relationships and profound family bonds. When you say "te amo" to someone, you're making a serious statement. Brazilians don't throw this word around casually—when they say it, they mean it.

So if you want to express love for coffee, don't say "amo café" (sounds like you want to marry your latte). Say "adoro café."

The direct translation of "love" as "amar" will trip you up if you use it like English speakers use "love." Portuguese has more ways to express love, and knowing when to use each one is what separates textbook learners from people who actually sound like a native speaker.

Brazilian Portuguese vs European Portuguese: More Than Just Te vs Amo-Te

Here's something that trips up a lot of learners: Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese sound completely different when spoken aloud.

Brazilian Portuguese has more open and affectionate vowel sounds. The word "te" in "te amo" sounds like "chee" in Brazil—so the whole phrase comes out as "chee AH-moo."

European Portuguese speakers keep the "t" sound as written—more like "teh AH-moo-teh" for "amo-te."

This isn't a minor difference. If you learn Portuguese from Brazil and then try to understand someone from Portugal speaking at normal speed, you're gonna struggle. The vowel reduction in European Portuguese makes it sound closer to a Slavic language than what you'd expect.

Portuguese people generally understand Brazilians easily—they're constantly exposed to Brazilian music and telenovelas. But it doesn't work as well in reverse.

There's also a formality difference. In Brazil, "você" became the universal "you"—you use it with everyone from friends to bosses. In Portugal, people mostly use "tu" even in professional settings, which affects how you conjugate verbs when expressing love in Portuguese.

Pick which variant you're learning and stick with it. If you're planning to spend time in Brazil or consume Brazilian media, learn Brazilian Portuguese. If Portugal is your goal, go European. Don't try to mix them.

Different Ways to Say I Love You in Portuguese (By Intensity)

Portuguese gives you more options than the English translation would suggest for expressing different intensities of affection. Here's the progression from casual to serious—these are all legitimate ways to express love depending on where you are in a relationship:

The verb "apaixonar-se" specifically means "to fall in love with"—like the actual process of falling. So "estou me apaixonando por você" means it's happening right now. This is useful if you want to express developing feelings without dropping the full "te amo" declaration.

Quick grammar note: Portuguese uses "estar" (temporary state) rather than "ser" (permanent characteristic) for being in love. Because the way Portuguese speakers express love depends on context—being in love is considered a state that can change.

Meu Amor and Other Terms of Endearment

Every language has pet names. In Brazilian Portuguese especially, you'll hear pet names like "meu amor" constantly. Here are the expressions of love that actually get used:

Meu amor — My love (the universal classic, works as both a term of endearment and a way to address someone you love) Meu bem — My darling Minha vida — My life (vida literally means "life") Meu coração — My heart (coração = heart) Querido/a — Dear

And then there's meu xuxu (or chuchu)—which literally means "my squash." Yes, the vegetable. It's a Brazilian thing and it's genuinely affectionate, not weird. Don't overthink it.

Brazilians use diminutives constantly to express affection in ways that sound more natural than in English. Adding "-inho" or "-inha" to the end of words makes them cuter. So "amor" becomes "amorzinho" (little love), "beijo" (kiss) becomes "beijinho" (little kiss). This pattern shows up everywhere when Brazilians say affectionate things.

Saudade: The Portuguese Word for Missing Someone You Love

You can't really grasp the world of love in Portuguese without understanding "saudade." It's one of those words without an equivalent English translation—people describe it as a mix of nostalgia, longing, and melancholy.

When Brazilians say "tenho saudades de você" (I miss you), it carries more weight than the English equivalent to "love" or "miss." It's not just "I wish you were here"—it's that heavy-hearted feeling of longing for someone who's far away.

This concept runs deep in Portuguese culture. Fado music, the traditional Portuguese genre, is basically the sound of saudade—songs about longing, loss, and bittersweet memories. If you want to understand how Portuguese speaking people think about love and romance, listening to some fado is a good starting point.

How to Respond When Someone Says "Te Amo"

If someone says "eu te amo" or "amo-te" to you and you want to tell someone you love them back:

Eu também te amo — I love you too Também te amo — Love you too
Eu também — Me too Te amo mais — I love you more

The last one is for those couples who do the whole "no, I love YOU more" thing. You know who you are.

How to Actually Learn Portuguese Love Expressions

Here's the thing about romantic phrases like "te amo"—you can memorize them, but knowing when and how to use them naturally requires hearing native speakers in context. The tone, the timing, the situations where Brazilians say one thing versus another.

If you're starting your Portuguese journey, watching Brazilian shows or Portuguese films with these phrases in context will teach you way more than any phrase list. You'll see how a character says "gosto de você" in the early stages of a relationship, then progresses to "te adoro," and eventually drops the "eu te amo" at the dramatic moment.

Learning vocabulary through spaced repetition works best when you're reviewing words with the actual scenes and situations attached—not just isolated flashcards with an English translation.

Once you've got these expressions of love down, you might want to branch out to other practical vocabulary. Portuguese numbers, for instance, come up constantly in everyday conversation—dates, phone numbers, prices, all that.

Learn How to Say I Love You Like a Native Speaker

If you want to actually use these different ways to express love naturally instead of sounding like you memorized a phrasebook, you need to hear them in context. A lot.

Migaku's browser extension lets you watch Portuguese content on Netflix, YouTube, or wherever—and when you see a word or phrase you don't know, you hover over it for an instant translation. Then you can save it to your flashcard deck with the actual scene attached.

So when you review "te amo" or "meu amor" later, you're not just seeing the English translation on a white background. You're seeing the moment from the show where someone actually said it—how they said it, their tone, the situation. That context is how you learn to sound like a native speaker instead of someone reading from a textbook.

The extension works anywhere you're watching or reading Portuguese content, and your flashcards sync across your phone and computer. There's a 10-day free trial if you want to try it out.