Amar, querer, encantar [three different ways to express love in Spanish]

There is more than one way to express love in Spanish. We have prepared a brief review, hoping that you'll find them useful during 2015. Happy New Year!

The verb amar ("to love") is pretty easy to remember because it shares Latin roots with the English words "amorous" and "enamored."

Si supieras lo mucho que te amo

If you knew how much I love you

Caption 15, Ozomatli - Jardinero
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There's also the verb querer, which means both "to love" (someone) or "to want" (something). You've probably heard: Te quiero ("I love you") and Yo quiero tacos ("I want tacos").

Siento que cada día te quiero más

I feel that each day I love you more

Caption 27, Alberto Barros - Mano a mano
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Then there's the verb encantar ("to love" or "to enchant"), which is used to express "love" in the sense of liking something a whole heck of a lot (i.e., gustar mucho). For example: Me encanta esta ciudad ("I love this city") and Me encantan esos pantalones ("I love those pants").

Did you note in our examples above that the verb encantar (like gustar) agrees with the object of affection (la cuidad/los pantalones) instead of the speaker? The construction, if expressed in English, might be "Those pants enchant me." Carlos, a friend from Colombia, uses encantar to describe how he feels about his job: