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- Topic: French >
- "Elle aime un homme allemand."
100 Comments
145
Bahahahaha!! I know, right? When I read along, I feel like I understand it just fine.....then I hear the translation WITHOUT the accompanying subtitles, and I think "What the what....?"
Aimer means "to like" or "to love" when followed by a noun or infinitive .
J'aime Paris - I love Paris
Il aime les chats - He likes cats
Aimes-tu voyager ? - Do you like to travel?
When aimer is followed by a person, it means "to love" or "to be in love with.
To say that you "like" or "are fond of" someone, qualify aimer with an adverb, such as assez , bien , or beaucoup . These adverbs make aimer less strong, so that it can be used with friends rather than family and lovers.
J'aime assez Paul. I kind of like Paul.
J'aime bien Ana. I like Ana.
J'aime beaucoup Étienne. I really like Étienne.
Je t'aime bien. I like you.
112
Strange that adding beaucoup to aimer makes it less strong I would have thought it would intensify it
While there is je t'adore, a much stronger way to say je t'aime, it isn't really used. The French prefer to use aimer for love and keep it more ambiguous. I may think my fiancé and I are soulmates but I rarely say je t'adore, and I would never say je t'adore in front of people or je adore mon fiancé to anyone but my best-est of friend. And if I did say je t'adore frequently, people would probably call me crazy Haha
It took my fiancé, an American who speaks some French, a while to understand that I was just reluctant to use strong language, and not that I wasn't in love with him. Silly thing. But to me Americans toss around the word love like it is nothing, they love everything ! That was hard for me to understand when I moved from Croatia to USA.
To fix the mistakes of the previous answers, adorer is not necessarily a stronger form of aimer. Aimer is used for both like and love in a serious sense (e.g. Je t'aime) but adorer is used less seriously to describe what you really, really like (J'ADORE les noix de cocos etc).
It's a common mistake to think adorer is just a more intense version of aimer.
Yes, that's pretty much how it goes. As with English you have to use context here, a girl might say to me "I really like you" and depending on who she is and where she is when it is spoken I could take it either as friendly or romantic.
Adore is a stronger version of aime just like adore/love is a stronger version of like in English so you can use that to help with the distinction when you are speaking.
"Aimer" works differently depending on whether we are referring to people or something else.
When referring to people and pets:-
"aimer" = "love"
"aimer bien" = like"
When referring to anything else:-
"aimer" and "aimer bien = "like"
"adorer" = "love"
"I love Marie" = "J'aime Marie"
"I like Claudette" = "J'aime bien Claudette"
"I like chocolate" = "J'aime le chocolat" or "J'aime bien le chocolat"
"I love chocolate" = "J'adore le chocolat"
@tomwolf11235
English and French capitalisation rules are different. Capitals are used much less in French.
In the case of nationalities the name of the country is capitalised in French - but the name of the language is not. When the nationality is used as an adjective as it is in this particular case it is capitalised in English but not in French. Although where a nationality is used as a noun it is Capitalised in both English and French.
Checkout link for more detailed information on the differences between English and French capitalisation rules.
http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-capitalization.htm
It's because Germany is so old and varied. The French term refers to a Germanic tribe called the Alamanni. There are actually several languages which make this connection, like Catalan and Spanish (Alemania, Alemany, etc). But the term 'German' is also made up, by the Romans and Greeks. Neither of which are what Germans call themselves, which is Deutsch/Deutschland. There are many names for Germans and Germany.
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aime = to like Why not accept that as an answer. She likes a German man is just as acceptable as She loves a German man.
536
She loves a German is correct, it is assumed that she loves a man. If it was a woman then one needs to add woman after German.