how do you explain the difference between "te quiero" y "te amo" to someone who is still learning Spanish or doesn't know the language at all? Was it difficult for you to understand it when you were learning the language?
(I just saw this, forgive me)
Just a general statement, what I’m going to say is not the case for all of Spanish. There are plenty of people who use te amo platonically or with parents/siblings, so it seems to be more regional. But in my experience…
If you’re being literal about it te quiero means “I hold you dear”
querer (when it means “to love”) is directly related to querido/a “dear” or “cherished”. In letters, querido/a is how you start letters as “Dear (someone’s name)” when you know them and are intimate enough to be using tú with them pretty much.
te quiero can be used romantically or platonically, it can be said with your close friends, your family, your significant other, siblings, and anyone you feel a sense of intimacy with.
The amar is always “to love”, and it very often means romantically. That isn’t always the case, but it is most connected to el amor “love” and amado/a “beloved”
But it is also connected to words like amigo/a “friend” and la amistad “friendship”.
While I would tend to classify amar as more romantic, it’s because it’s really even more intimate (in my opinion) than querer. I personally would find it a bit weird to use amar with parents and siblings, but it can be used effectively in particularly heartfelt moments. To me, amar is more closely related to romance and significant others.
amar is probably best described as a more intense form of love, and that’s why it usually gets attributed to romantic partners more than just ordinary friends
Put a different way, te quiero said among friends could be platonic, but if I saw te amo used my first impression is that it would be romantic.
This is all based on my own experience, so there are bound to be regional and/or contextual exceptions.
Slightly skeezy side note: querido/a is sometimes used in different contexts to refer to a mistress or lover. It feels more historical to me like someone’s mistress as opposed to their wife, but I don’t know if it still has that meaning today. From what I know of, el/la amante “lover” is used for “mistress” or the idea of an extramarital partner, though it certainly doesn’t have to be. It could just be “lover” and have nothing to do with marriage. Anyway, it’s complicated and sort of tied to the old way of people marrying for political reasons but still having their mistress/favorite there, which is more at odds with strict monogamy that became more common after the fact.
areudirty
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
blakekathryn
kianamaiart
izzy806
