How to Say I Love You in Arabic, to Anyone, in Six Varieties

Common Arabic Phrases > I Love You in Arabic

I love you in Arabic is أُحِبُّكَ (uhibbuka) to a man and أُحِبُّكِ (uhibbuki) to a woman in Modern Standard Arabic. In speech, Egyptians say bahebbak and bahebbik, Levantines say bhebbak and bhebbik, Gulf speakers say ahibbik and ahibbich, and Moroccans say kanbghik to anyone. The first table gives every form, including the one for a group.

Transliteration on this page is plain letters: ʿ is ع, ʾ is a glottal stop, h stands for both ح and ه, gh is a gargled r, and ch is the Gulf and Iraqi چ. A doubled letter is held longer.

I love you in six varieties of Arabic

The ending of the verb says who you are talking to. In most varieties -ak goes to a man, -ik or -ich to a woman, and -kum or -kon to a group. Moroccan is the exception, with one form for a man or a woman. The forms are checked against Wiktionary's translations of I love you, Omniglot's list, Talk in Arabic for Egyptian, the Levantine pronoun suffix table, Hachi's Iraqi greetings and Darija School for Moroccan.

Two forms trip people up. In Gulf Arabic the verb itself takes -ik to a man, so ahibbik is masculine there (Wiktionary records it). Do not carry that over to other Gulf phrases: a man is still asked shlonak. In Egypt, bahebbik with the same ending is feminine. Iraqi keeps -ak for a man, and both Gulf and Iraqi use ch for a woman. Iraqis often type the چ as ج, so you will also see أحبج. Modern Standard Arabic has a fifth form for a group of women only, أُحِبُّكُنَّ (uhibbukunna), which you will meet in writing, not in speech. Palestinians and Jordanians often put a vowel in front, bahebbak. For how each dialect sounds beyond this phrase, see our Egyptian Arabic courses and books, Levantine Arabic courses compared, Gulf Arabic learning resources, Iraqi Arabic resources and Moroccan Darija resources.

25 Arabic terms of endearment, and who you can say them to

Many Arabic endearments are a body part, a life or a soul with "my" on the end: قلبي (albi, my heart), عيوني (ʿyuni, my eyes), روحي (ruhi, my soul). The final -i means my, so these have one form for a man or a woman. The register column says who can hear each one without it sounding odd: family, partner or friend.

Register and region come from Saudi Dialect's guide to Saudi and Gulf endearments, Studio Arabiya, ArabiyaPath's Gulf phrases for fadaitak, and Muslim Bloom's list by dialect for the Egyptian and Levantine rows. "Yalla habibi" is a different thing, a friendly hurry-up; our Arabic slang page explains yalla habibi with the rest of the everyday slang.

How to say I love you a lot, and how to reply

To say I love you a lot in Arabic, add the dialect's word for "a lot" after the verb: awi in Egypt, ktir in the Levant, wayid in the Gulf, hwaya in Iraq and bzzaf in Morocco. To answer, say "and me too" or put وأنا (w-ana, and I) in front of the dialect form, as in w-ana bahebbak. The intensifiers and the Gulf "me too" are confirmed in Wiktionary's entries for Iraqi hwaya and Gulf baʿad.

A dash means we found no source we trust for an Iraqi "me too", so we left it out. Egyptians also use جدا (gedan, very) for a stronger, slightly more formal version, and say I miss you with وحشتني (wahashtini) to a man and وحشتيني (wahashtiini) to a woman. Couples also trade playful replies to good morning in Arabic, and for an anniversary the wishes on our happy birthday in Arabic page work just as well.

Arabic words for love

Arabic has one everyday word for love, حب (hubb), and a long shelf of stronger ones that classical writers ranked as stages, from first attraction to madness. Al Fusaic sets out 14 classical stages, from hubb to hiyam. Seven of the nine words below come from that list; the other two, محبة (mahabba) and غرام (gharam), are not on it; both have Wiktionary entries.

Learn hubb and mahabba first, since they cover everyday speech, and treat the rest as words you will recognise before you use them. The classical love poets used all of them, and our guide to Arabic love poetry and the poets who wrote it shows them in their lines.

How to write I love you in Arabic text and in chat

Unvowelled Arabic writes the masculine and feminine Modern Standard forms the same way, أحبك. Only the short vowel mark on the last letter tells them apart: a fatha in أُحِبُّكَ for a man, a kasra in أُحِبُّكِ for a woman. Egyptian and Levantine بحبك works the same way. Gulf and Iraqi Arabic spell the difference out, with ك for a man and چ for a woman. Our page on Arabic vowel marks explains the fatha and kasra.

In texts most Arabs skip the script and type Arabizi, Latin letters with numbers for sounds English lacks. The 7 stands for ح, so I love you becomes ba7ebbak in Egyptian, b7ebbak in Levantine and a7ibbich to a Gulf woman. Moroccans type kanbghik. To turn any of these back into Arabic script, paste them into our Arabizi to Arabic converter.

Notes, mistakes and what phrasebooks leave out

These four come up as soon as you start using the phrase with real people.

Men call each other habibi

Habibi between two men is ordinary and not romantic: it means mate or dear. The romantic weight is in the stronger words. Calling someone hayati, ruhi or ʿumri says much more than habibi does. A man saying habibti to a woman he hardly knows can sound too familiar.

Moroccan kanbghik also means I want you

The Moroccan verb بغى (bgha) means both to love and to want, so context decides. Wiktionary also lists كنحبك (kanhabbak), from the same root as habibi, as a Moroccan way to say it.

Tuʾburni means you will outlive me

The Levantine tuʾburni, may you bury me, means "may I die before you, so I never have to live without you". Transparent Language notes that mothers say it to their children, and lovers to each other. Jordanians have their own dying-for-love phrase, بموت فيك (bamut fik, I die in you), which our Jordanian Arabic guide covers.

Parents call their children mama and baba

In the Levant a mother calls her child mama and a father calls the child baba, whatever the child's age or sex. 365 Days of Lebanon records the same reversal for grandparents and uncles: a grandmother calls a grandchild teta. It confuses learners who know these words from our Arabic family words list. The child is not being called a parent: the blog reads it as the parent seeing themselves in the child.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write "I love you" in Arabic text?

In Modern Standard Arabic it is أحبك. With vowel marks, أُحِبُّكَ (uhibbuka) is said to a man and أُحِبُّكِ (uhibbuki) to a woman; only the last mark differs. In Egyptian and Levantine Arabic it is written بحبك (bahebbak, bhebbak). In chat, Arabs type it in Latin letters with 7 for the letter ح: ba7ebbak, b7ebbak, a7ibbich.

What does uhibuk mean?

Uhibbuk (أحبك) means I love you in Modern Standard Arabic. It is the short form of uhibbuka, said to a man, and uhibbuki, said to a woman; in quick speech the final vowel drops. It is correct, but in conversation it sounds like a line from a novel, so most Arabs say the dialect form instead, such as bahebbak in Egypt.

How do you reply to "I love you" in Arabic?

Say me too, or say it back. Me too is wa-ana aydan in Modern Standard Arabic, w-ana kaman in Egyptian and Levantine, w-ana baʿad in Gulf Arabic and htta ana in Moroccan. To say it back, put w-ana (and I) in front of the dialect form, for example w-ana bahebbak in Egyptian.

What is "I love you" in Dubai?

Dubai speaks Emirati Arabic, a Gulf dialect, where I love you is ahibbik to a man and ahibbich to a woman. The ch ending marks a woman and is typical of the Gulf. Modern Standard uhibbuka is understood, but sounds formal. Ya ʿyuni (my eyes) and fadaitak (I would give myself for you) are common Gulf endearments.

What does ya hayati mean?

Ya hayati (يا حياتي) means O my life. It is said to a partner or to a child, in the same form to a man or a woman, and it is heard in every Arabic-speaking country. It is stronger than habibi: friends call each other habibi all the time, but hayati is kept for people you are close to.

What is habibi love?

Habibi (حبيبي) means my beloved. It is the commonest Arabic word of affection and it is not only romantic: men call male friends habibi, parents call children habibi, and couples use it too. To a woman the form is habibti (حبيبتي). Context tells you which kind of love is meant.

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