21 Ways to Say I Love You
How do you say “I love you” to your boyfriend, wife or partner? Are you a hopeful romantic, constantly seeking new ways to express your affection? How do you keep the romance alive in your relationship? I have always believed that one needs to keep doing whatever they did to find the person they love in the first place. Finding your „one‟ isn‟t the end objective - it‟s only the beginning. We cannot afford to get complacent. We need to do things to keep the love and romance alive, to show our loved ones how much they mean to us, to make them happy, to evolve as a couple, to grow in the relationship. The good news is there are a million and one ways to be expressive. So take note! Below are a few ways to say “I love you” creatively. 1. 7 days of birthday Apart from your anniversary, your loved one‟s birthday is the most important day of the year. So you have to make it very special. One way to do this is to prepare really well. Find out what the object of your affection covets the most. Or simply what they enjoy doing, what they love to eat, where they go to have fun. You need 7 items for the 7 days leading up to their birthday. These are little things they would be delighted to have or do. Examples are: a. A dinner at their fave resto b. A poem/song written by you c. Flowers delivered to their work place d. Wash their car e. Give them a massage f. A personalised pen g. A book on a hobby they have like photography, writing or cooking h. A tiny bottle of their favourite scent The idea is on the 7th day before their birthday, you create a banner saying “It‟s 7 Days Before Your Birthday” and stick it up either in the lounge or the bedroom. Then give them their first little present. The following day, change the 7 Days to 6 Days and give them their little pressie, and so on. Obviously the day of the birthday, you probably will have a whole day planned for them filled will wonderful surprises. And on this day, the presents are totally up to you. But the most important thing is that you give it a lot of thought and only do things you know they love. 2. Romance DVD’s marathon One weekend, a Saturday or a Sunday, or Friday evening, why not watch 3 or more romance films from different decades, genres and even countries. Some of my personal favourites are Cinema Paradiso, Il Postino, An Affair to Remember, Roman Holiday, Stealing Heaven, Breakfast At Tiffany‟s, Love Story, Same Time,Next Year and Ever After. What are yours?
3. Do not bring up past mistakes Now this is a big one. How challenging is this? But believe you me, it‟s one of the best things you can ever do to help a relationship stay strong and allow for the loving to deepen. What‟s the point of bring up past mistakes anyway? Who is it hurting more - you or your loved one? And why would you want to hurt either one? If you cannot see past the mistakes, it‟s time for a relationship audit. 4. Jar of memories One of the things that will help you accomplish this is keep a record of the wonderful things you and your loved one have done together. Using paper, whatever type you may want to use (linen or not), and whatever the colour or a variety, write the memories on each piece of paper, roll it up (or fold) and drop all of them into a jar. A transparent cookie jar works well. You can even decorate the jar yourself with photos of the two of you and other arts and craft materials. Some of the memories could be: a. Remember when we went to the park one Sunday? We rented bikes and spent the most afternoon I could remember. I felt like a child as we enjoyed our ice cream afterwards. b. Remember when we I had the flu last year and you came home at lunch time for a week to make sure I had something to eat? I never felt more loved. c. Remember when we kissed for the first time? I felt I have come home. It‟s up to you how many memories you‟d like to put in the jar, but 100 is a good number. They don‟t have to be all big memories. The little moments count, too. 5. The video This involves a lot of work, but hey, you‟re doing it for the love of your life. You can do this for them for their birthday or anniversary. What you do is make a list of all the special people in your partner‟s life: from school (including teachers who have been special to them), workmates, the family, and anyone else you think is important to be part of the video. You then prepare questions you would like to ask these people as you film them. The questions would be different for each person, depending on their relationship with your partner. Each interview has to be short and sweet because editing the video would be very difficult. Then at the end of the edited interviews, you can make a video with their favourite music as you show pictures of them chronologically arranged from the time they were born to the present (if it‟s for a birthday) or photos of you together traveling, sharing moments together (if it‟s for your anniversary). 6. List all the things you love about them It‟s best that you and your partner make a list for each other. Then you can frame that list or put it somewhere prominent (like the fridge) so that you are reminded what you love about the other person, and you also get reminded of the things they love about you. That way neither one of you ever forgets why you fell for each other in the first place. 7. Say I love you before you sleep and the moment you wake up
That‟s what I call starting and ending the day right! 8. Prepare meals together, and wash up together, too Plan the meal you both will enjoy and shop for the ingredients together. It‟s more fun that way. 9. Whisk them off to their dream vacation Making sure that their passport is valid for at least 6 months and they have the necessary visa, it would be great to whisk them off somewhere they have always wanted to visit. Be it somewhere in Europe, South America or Asia, all that matters is you pick a place your loved one has been dreaming of for a long time. Then make sure you research places they would enjoy visiting there, and activities they would delight in doing. If you can also keep the destination from them a secret until you get there, or board the plane, all the better! 10. Make a scrapbook on your relationship - concert/cinema tickets, hotel reservations, cards and love notes, pictures When doing this, you may want to write a story to go along with it and call it something like: When Luke Met Andrea. 11. Read love poems to each other This one is really special, but can only be appreciated if at least one of you like literature. In the movie Stealing Heaven (a true story), Abelard and Heloise would read poems to each other and it was quite exciting when they did because they felt that passion for each other. One of my favourite poets, apart from Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, is Pablo Neruda. He is a very special poet. I highly recommend his sonnets and his book 20 Love Poems and A Song of Despair. If you don‟t want to read poems, then listen to them. If you get the soundtrack of Il Postino, with celebrities reading the poems, you can still have a special moment together while sipping coffee or tea and eating some cake. 12. Send your partner flowers You send flowers not only on special occasions, but also whenever you feel like saying “I love you.” Men may deny it, but they don‟t mind getting flowers, too. And green orchids usually work for men! The message that accompanies the flowers should be unique and written in a language that only you and your loved one understand - either a particular language or a quote from a film that you both like or novel that you read. 13. Turn your email and text messages into a book. Type them up, print them yourself and bound it. Or you can have this done professionally. If you were going to do this yourself, I can already tell you that it does take a lot of time and effort. But the end result is something your partner will truly cherish. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you‟re guaranteed that no one else is going to read the email, especially if there‟s something very personal or illicit you‟d like to keep private. 14. Surprise them at work and take them to a really nice place to have lunch or even have a picnic Who doesn‟t like surprises, especially when they‟ve been having a not so good day at work? A picnic would be a bit more intimate and personal - carefully choosing what wine they love to have with their pasta or cheeseboard.
15. Prepare their lunch to take to work - their favourite foods, a cartoon and a love note It may mean that you have to get up a little bit earlier than usual to do this, but if you write the note and cut out the cartoon the night before then things are easier. In the end, it‟s not really so much the food itself (although it helps) that matters the most, but the thought that goes with it. Make sure that they don‟t have a lunch meeting before preparing anything. 16. A breakfast in bed on a lazy Sunday wouldn’t go amiss. The smell of crispy bacon and eggs in the morning is so inviting. Or if they prepare porridge or just toasts with freshly brewed coffee, they would love being treated like a king or queen in the morning. 17. Call them at work - just to see how they are and say how much you love them This doesn‟t have to last more than a minute. Hearing each other voices is enough. 18. Spoon when you sleep Spooning is just as intimate as making love. When your bodies touch, they communicate to each other and will tell your partner exactly how you feel. 19. Instead of giving them a Christmas, Valentine or New Year’s card in person, why not post it to them they would love the surprise! I suggest you mail it to their place of work. If they work from home, then that‟s fine, too. 20. Kiss them the Inuit way - nose to nose. You’d be surprised at how pleasurable it is. Try it. And then let me know how it feels when the tip of your noses rub for a few seconds. Your whole body tingles. That‟s love! 21. Hold hands in public and give them a kiss when they least expect it. Hopefully, you don‟t have clammy hands. But even so, holding hands in public is a definite declaration of love for each other. If you can just avoid swinging your arms as you hold hands while walking, that would be much appreciated because that‟s when you cross over to ickiness. 22. Say “I love you” in another language now and then. And to help you with this, read on! So what about you? How do you express your love for your special someone? Afrikaans - Ek is lief vir jou! Albanian - Te dua! Amharic - Afekrishalehou! Arabic - Ohiboke / Nohiboka Armenian - Yes kez si‟rumem! Basque - Maite zaitut! Bengali - Ami tomake bahlobashi! Bosnian - Volim te! Bulgarian - Obicham te!
Catalan - T‟estimo! Creole - Mi aime jou! Croatian - Volim te! Czech - Miluji tev! Danish - Jeg elsker dig! Dutch - Ik hou van je! English - I love you! Esperanto - Mi amas vin! Estonian - Mina armastan sind! Farsi - Tora dost daram! Filipino - Mahal kita! Finnish - (Mä) rakastan sua! French - Je t‟aime! Frisian - Ik hald fan dei! Galician - Querote! German - Ich liebe dich! Greek - S‟ayapo! Gujarati - Hoon tane pyar karoochhoon! tane chaahuN chhuN! Hawaiian - Aloha wau ia „oe! Hebrew - Anee ohev otakh / Anee ohevet otkha / Anee ohev otkha / Anee ohevet otakh Hindi - Mai tumase pyar karata hun / Mai tumase pyar karati hun Hungarian - Szeretlek! Icelandic - Eg elska thig! Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu! Irish - T‟a gr‟a agam dhuit! Italian - Ti amo! Japanese - Kimi o ai shiteru! Korean - Dangsinul saranghee yo! Latin - Te amo! Latvian - Es tevi milu! Lithuanian - As tave myliu! Malaysian -vSaya cintamu! Mandarin -vWo ai ni! Marshallese -vYokwe Yuk! Norwegian -vJeg elsker deg! Polish -vKocham ciebie! Portuguese -vEu te amo! Romanian - Te iubesc! Russian - Ya tyebya lyublyu! Sanskrit - Twayi snihyaami Serbian - Volim te! Sesotho - Kiyahurata! Slovak - Lubim ta! Slovenian - Ljubim te! Spanish - Te amo! Swahili - Nakupenda! Swedish - Jag älskar dig! Tagalog - Iniibig kita! Thai - Phom rug khun / Chan rug khun Turkish - Seni seviyorum! Ukrainian - Ya tebe kokhayu! Urdu - Main tumse muhabbat karta hoon!
Vietnamese - Anh yeu em / Em yeu an Welsh - Rwy‟n dy garu di! Yiddish - Kh‟hob dikh lib! Zulu - Ngiyakuthanda!