Confessing Your Love in Japanese

Many of you may already know the meaning of ai shiteru 愛してる – while it is correct to say, that the English equivalent is ‘I love you’, it is not a phrase that is being used often when talking about your feelings for somebody else (okay, maybe in a drama it is), no matter if the person in question is a romantic partner or your parents. In English, however, ‘I love you’ has become such a widely used expression that it is also said to friends and family – therefore turning this phrase into a potentially casual statement. If you want to confess your love to your date in Japanese – let’s say her name is Haruko – it is more common to say: Haruko no koto ga suki はるこのことが好き. This translates to more or less: ‘I like everything about you’. If Haruko is only your friend, no romance involved whatsoever, but you still want to express, that you like her, you can say: Haruko ga suki はるこが好き. Leaving out ‘no koto’ のこと here will kind of take away the romantic meaning in it and generalizes the expression.

However, saying ‘Haruko no koto ga suki’ is still a pretty straightforward statement. If you want to make your confession sound a little less ‘extreme’, you can also say, for example: issho ni iru to tanoshii 一緒にいると楽しい, which means ‘I’m having fun when we’re together’. As this phrase could also be said to a friend, it is a bit more indirect. Chances are, you don’t scare Haruko away!

Written by Jannick Scherrer