How to Say Love in Latin

Pronounce the vowel sounds. If you want to say love in Latin you need to get to grips with pronunciation in Latin. Key to this is recognising long and short vowel sounds. In Latin these variations are shown by the diacritic marks above the letters a, e, i, o, and u. Short vowels are indicated like this: ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ. Long vowels are indicated like this: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.

• These diacritical marks are not part of the spelling of the word, they just indicate long and short vowels for pronunciation.
• If you were writing Latin you wouldn’t include these marks.
• To say “love” in Latin you need to concentrate on pronouncing the long vowels correctly.
• ā: as in the English father, not the [æ] in fat, or [ə] in apart.
• ē: as in the English they, but longer. Not the [ei] as "ey" in they, or [ə] in apart, or [i:] in ecology.
• ī: as in the English sheep. Not as [ai].
• ō: as in the Italian ó in amore.
• ū: as in English root. Not as [ju:] you, or French "u", German "ü".^[1]

Learn the verb “to love.” The infinitive of the Latin verb “to love” is “amāre.” This is the basis upon which you can conjugate the verb to find its other forms. Latin grammar can be quite tricky, with many different conjugations having a big impact on the word. Here are some of the main conjugations for the present tense to get you started:

• First person singular: “amō.”
• Second person singular: “amās.”
• Third person singular: “amat.”
• First person plural: “amāmus.”
• Second person plural: “amātis.”
• Third person plural: “amant.”^[2]

Say “love” in the past tense. There are six tenses in Latin, and three of these (imperfect, perfect and pluperfect) concerns things that happened in the past. You can learn to say the verb “love” in these three past tenses. The imperfect tense describes actions continuing in the past. The perfect tense describes actions completed in the past. The pluperfect is used to describe something that happened before other actions in the past. Here is how you say “love” in the first person singular – second person singular – third person singular – first person plural in these tenses.

• Imperfect: “amābam” – “amābās” – “amābat” – “amābāmus.”
• Perfect: “amāvī” – “amāvistī” – “amāvit” – “amāvimus.”
• Pluperfect: “amāveram” – “amāverās” – “amāverat” – amaveramus.”^[3]

Say “love” in the future tense. Latin has two tenses for things happening in the future, the future tense and the future perfect tense. The future perfect is used to describe things which will be finished sometime in the future, whereas the future tense is used to describe actions taking place in the future. Here is how you say “love” in the first person singular – second person singular – third person singular – first person plural in these future tenses.

• Future: “amābō” – “amābis” – “amābit” – “amābimus.”
• Future Perfect: “amāverō” – “amāveris” – “amāverit” – “amaverimus.”^[4]

Recognise other variations. With Latin’s fairly complex system of grammar, there are still a great many other variations and conjugations of the verb “to love.” As well the six tenses, and the three persons (first (I), second (you) and third (he/she/it)), Latin verbs also have four “moods” and two “voices.” The “moods” are indicative, infinitive, subjunctive and imperative. The “voices” are active and passive.

• If you want to study the grammar for Latin verbs in more detail, you will have to spend some time getting on top of all these variations.
• The variations in verbs is at the heart of what makes Latin the language it is. To get to grips with Latin stylistics you will have to study verbal modifications.^[5]

Learn the noun “love.” Love is not only a verb of course, it is also a noun. It is a masculine noun, and the nominative singular version is “amor” in Latin. As with the verbs, the noun has a number of variations that change depending on the case of the verb, and whether it is singular or plural. Here are the forms for the nominative – genitive – dative – accusative – ablative – and vocative:

• Singular: “amor” – “amoris” – “amori” – “amorem” – amore” – “amor.”
• Plural: “amores” – “amorum” – “amoribus” – “amores” – “amoribus” – “amores.”^[6]