What is I love you in Russian

What is I love you in Russian

“Я люблю тебя”

Google or Yandex can tell you that as well as Sebastian. (If you’re learning Russian, get to know Yandex translator, too. It’s from Russia.)

What machine translators won’t do for you, however, is explain or parse it for you. The “Lingq way” is not to pore over grammar tables, but if you’re starting out in a heavily inflected language like Russian, it helps to be aware of things to look for and to be aware of as you read and listen. You may already know this, but here is my “know what you’re getting into; it’s not that scary” intro to Russian grammar.

Я = “I” which is different than “me”. Russian has a different word for “me” just like English does. “Я” and “I” are used for subjects, and “меня” and “me” are used as objects. This is called declension, and you can see that both English and Russian do it, so it’s not that strange. It’s just that Russian does it a whole lot more – there are more than just these 2 forms for use in different ways. And Russian does it for all nouns, not just pronouns. And for the adjectives describing the nouns. Whee!

люблю = “love”. But only if I’m doing the loving. If she loves you, notice the verb is not the same form any more; there is an “s” tacked on the end when an English verb is used with a third-person subject. This is called conjugation, and both English and Russian do it, so it’s not strange. English used to do it a lot more (thou lovest, she loveth), and Russian does it even more than English used to.

тебя = “you”, but only as an object. Going back to older English again, “тебя” is “thee” but “ты” is “thou”: I love thee, and thou lovest me.

You don’t think about all this when speaking English. Through lots of exposure you get to the point where you don’t think about it in Russian. You automatically know that “I loves she” is way off in English, and likewise you sense what sounds right and wrong in Russian.

Finally, know that even though Russian grammar is more complex than English, it can really help you understand the sorts of long, complex compound sentences you’ll find in literature, and even in news stories. All those grammatical endings tell you how each word is used, what it’s place is in the phrase, and that helps you to pull out the proper meaning. Fortunately, when people speak the sentences are usually much simpler.

Postscript: Use the Wiktionary dictionary, too. It often gives more detailed definitions, and it provides full declensions and conjugations when you want them.

Удачи!

1 Like

I’ve been in Saint-Petersburg, Russia this july and I had to say to my boyfriend that I love him. I tried to repeat with google but it wasn’t good idea XD, so I want to thanks all the kind russian people in my hotel that were helping me with the pronunciation. I really liked the time that I had in Russia, it was good to see all the beautiful places: petersburg.expert . My boy was really so touched when I said “Ya tebia lubly”…I love this city and I recommend you to visit Russia!