"Children need love."

Translation: Barn behöver kärlek.

[kmoriley]

Is älska or kärlek more appropriate? Not sure what the difference between the two is really.

[devalanteriel]

älska is a verb, kärlek is a noun, so you can only use the latter here. There's also the noun älskog, but that refers to sexual intercourse.

[kmoriley]

Thanks! I found a similar answer but it didn't include the älskog bit, but that's good to know!

[potatoeglot]

Late reply but for other people who are wondering about this: älska is a verb while kärlek is a noun. Perhaps it's pretty confusing for some because the English word love acts as both verb and noun.

EDIT: While the page was loading to post my reply, I saw a version of this comment where a mod replied. Whaaaaaat...In any case, I'll just leave my comment here.

[hundage]

hmmm, why isn't "Barnen behover karlek" also correct here?
I know that Barnen means "the children", but in Swedish you will often use the suffix in circumstances where you wouldn't in English.
Would Swedes not use Barnen here to distinguish between child and children?
I'm a little confused.

[Lundgren8]

No, then that could only mean the children and the sentence is indefinite.