All about Aimer

Aimer is one of the most common French verbs. It is a regular -ER verb, requires avoir in the compound tenses, and can mean "to like" or "to love." There is a little bit of a trick to using aimer correctly with people and direct object pronouns which you will learn about in this lesson.


Using aimer

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?

I love you

When aimer is followed by a person, it means "to love" or "to be in love with." You can use aimer to mean simply "love" with your family, but with other people, it means "in love," so if that's not what you mean, you will need to qualify it (see below).

J'aime Luc (mon frère)
I love Luc (my brother)

Il aime Chantal
He's in love with Chantal

Je t'aime !
I love you!

I like you

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 they 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

Aimer with direct objects

The direct object pronouns le, la, and les can only be used with aimer when they refer to people. The meaning of aimer with a direct object pronoun is the same as explained above.

Je l'aime !
I love him/her!

Je l'aime bien
I like him/her

When the direct object means "it" (because you are replacing a non-human noun or a verb), you cannot use a direct object pronoun; instead, you must use the indefinite demonstrative pronoun ça.

Aimes-tu le tennis ? Oui, j'aime ça
Do you like tennis? Yes, I like it

Nous voyageons beaucoup, nous aimons ça
We travel a lot, we like it

Je t'ai écrit un poème - tu aimes ça ?
I wrote you a poem - do you like it?

Aimer in the conditional

In the conditional, aimer is a polite way to make a request or state a desire

J'aimerais partir à midi
I would like to leave at noon

Aimeriez-vous manger avec nous?
Would you like to eat with us?

S'aimer

The pronominal verb s'aimer can be reflexive or reciprocal.

1. Reflexive: to like oneself

Je m'aime en bleu
I like myself (how I look) in blue

Il ne s'aime pas
He doesn't like himself (has low self-esteem)

2. Reciprocal: to be in love, to love one another

Nous nous aimons
We are in love

Penses-tu qu'ils s'aiment ?
Do you think they are in love?

Expressions with aimer

aimer à la folie - to be madly in love

aimer autant - to be just as happy (with, that), to prefer

aimer mieux - to prefer

Qui aime bien châtie bien (proverb) - Spare the rod and spoil the child

Qui m'aime aime mon chien (proverb) - Love me, love my dog

Conjugations

Present tense

j'aime
tu aimes
il aime
nous aimons
vous aimez
ils aiment

All tenses