Next week I am celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary. The friendly Chilean I met during my Erasmus program in France is now my husband of many years. As you can imagine, meeting him has been an incredible motivation for me to learn Spanish.
How about you? How many of you have fallen in love with a charming Spaniard or a handsome Latino? I’m guessing there is quite a big group here.
Today’s post is for all of you who wish to add a pinch of romanticism to their Spanish.
To start with, let’s review the basic Spanish love vocabulary:
15 Key Words and Phrases about Love:
- 🇪🇸 el Amor – 🇬🇧 love (noun)
- 🇪🇸 amar – 🇬🇧 to love (verb)
- 🇪🇸 Amado – 🇬🇧 loved one / beloved (noun or adjective)
- 🇪🇸 amoroso – 🇬🇧 kind (adjective)
- 🇪🇸 mi amor / cariño – 🇬🇧 my darling (an endearment phrase)
- 🇪🇸 una carta de amor – 🇬🇧 a love letter
- 🇪🇸 estar enamorado – 🇬🇧 to be in love
- 🇪🇸 enamorarse – 🇬🇧 to fall in love
- 🇪🇸 novio/a – 🇬🇧 boyfriend / girlfriend
- 🇪🇸 marido – 🇬🇧 husband
- 🇪🇸 esposa / señora – 🇬🇧 wife
- 🇪🇸 proponer el matrimonio – 🇬🇧 to propose
- 🇪🇸 casarse – 🇬🇧 to get married
- 🇪🇸 un anillo de compromiso – 🇬🇧 an engagement ring
- 🇪🇸 una argolla – 🇬🇧 a wedding ring
Would you know how to use the vocabulary above in a sentence? You’ll have to remember about correct verb conjugation and make sure to adjust the form of adjectives whenever necessary. Have a look:
🇪🇸 Te amo con todo mi corazón.
🇬🇧 I love you with all my heart.
🇪🇸 Mi hermana se ha enamorado de un chico español.
🇬🇧 My sister has fallen in love with a Spanish guy.
🇪🇸 Mi novio es méxicano. Nos casamos el mes que viene.
🇬🇧 My boyfriend is Mexican. We are getting married next month.
🇪🇸 Mañana le voy a proponer el matrimonio a Sofía.
🇬🇧 Tomorrow I am going to propose to Sofía.
🇪🇸 ¿Cuántos años llevan de casados?
🇬🇧 How many years have you been married?
In order to answer the latter, you might want to review numbers in Spanish. 😉
12 Spanish Proverbs about Love
Love is a common topic in every culture. Various wise men have expressed their opinions about love, and with time, their words have been absorbed into popular culture.
If you want to take your Spanish to the next level of fluency, check out the selection of common proverbs about love.
🇪🇸 Amor todo lo puede.
🇬🇧 Love can do it all.
🇪🇸 Amor y celos, hermanos gemelos.
🇬🇧 Love and jealousy are twin brothers.
🇪🇸 El amor entra con cantos y sale con llantos.
🇬🇧 Love enters singing and leaves crying.
🇪🇸 El amor es ciego, y el matrimonio lo cura.
🇬🇧 Love is blind, and marriage is a cure.
🇪🇸 El amor no respeta la ley, ni obedece a rey.
🇬🇧 Love doesn’t follow the law nor obeys a king.
🇪🇸 El amor de asnos hace sabios, y de sabios hace asnos.
🇬🇧 Love turns donkeys into wise men and wise men into donkeys.
🇪🇸 El amor es el vino que más pronto se avinagra.
🇬🇧 Love is the wine that goes sour the fastest.
🇪🇸 En la cárcel y en la cama, verás bien quién te ama.
🇬🇧 In jail and in bed, you’ll see who truly loves you.
🇪🇸 Ni abril sin flores, ni juventud sin amores.
🇬🇧 There is no April without flowers or youth without love.
🇪🇸 Chancla que yo tiro, no la vuelvo a levantar.
🇬🇧 If I throw my sandal, I am never picking it up.
🇪🇸 El amor es carne para el mancebo y hueso para el viejo.
🇬🇧 Love is like meat for a youngster and a bone for an old man.
Most of those sayings are pretty straightforward, aren’t they? I am guessing the only ones you might struggle to understand are the last two.
🇪🇸 Test Your Spanish Knowledge 🇪🇸
The way I understand the first one of them (the one about throwing a sandal) is that once you say goodbye to the person you love, there is no coming back to them.
And the other one? Well, young people thrive on love and need it to grow (just like youngsters need meat to build their muscles). On the other hand, old people don’t have what it takes to love (no teeth to chew on the bone).
Is your interpretation similar to mine? Do you agree with these proverbs?
8 Famous quotes about love in Spanish
Ideas about love are not only proper to popular culture. For centuries, famous poets and writers have shared their thoughts about what love means.
With a special dedication to bookworms like myself, I have collected a few quotes. Enjoy!
🇪🇸 El amor no necesita ser entendido. Solo necesita ser demostrado.
🇬🇧 Love doesn’t need to be understood. It only needs to be shown.
(Paulo Coelho – Brasilian lyricist).
🇪🇸 El verdadero amor no se conoce por lo que exige, sino por lo que ofrece.
🇬🇧 You can recognize true love not by what it demands but what it offers.
(Jacinto Benavente – Spanish dramatist)
🇪🇸 El amor no mira con los ojos, sino con el alma, por eso pintan ciego al alado cupido.
🇬🇧 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
(William Shakespeare)
🇪🇸 El amor no mira con los ojos, sino con el alma, por eso pintan ciego al alado cupido.
🇬🇧 Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
(William Shakespeare)
🇪🇸 En un beso, sabrás todo lo que he callado.
🇬🇧 In one kiss, you’ll know everything I haven’t said.
(Pablo Neruda – Chilean poet, nobelist)
🇪🇸 Uno está enamorado cuando se da cuenta de que otra persona es única.
🇬🇧 One is in love when one realizes that the other person is unique.
(Jorge Luis Borges – Argentine poet and short-story writer)
🇪🇸 Por una mirada, un mundo; por una sonrisa, un cielo;
por un beso… yo no sé qué te diera por un beso.
🇬🇧 For a glance, the world, for a smile, the heavens,
for a kiss… I don’t know what I could give you for a kiss!
(Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer – Spanish poet).
🇪🇸 No hay cosa que más avive el amor que el temor de perder al ser amado.
🇬🇧 There is no better thing to revive love than the fear of losing the loved one.
(Francisco de Quevedo – Spanish politician)
🇪🇸 Puede uno amar sin ser feliz; puede uno ser feliz sin amar; pero amar y ser feliz es algo prodigioso.
🇬🇧 You can love without being happy; you can be happy without love, but to love and to be happy is something prodigious.
(Honoré de Balzac – French novelist and playwright)
How do you like them? My absolute favorite is the one by Neruda. One kiss can tell more than a thousand words, right?
And remember, reading in Spanish is a great way to improve your vocabulary and comprehension. There are many books you can try even if you are still an A2 or B1 student.
