NuanceDeckРусский

Russian · phrasebook

I love you in Russian

I love you in Russian is я тебя люблю (ya tebya lyublyu): literally I you love. The object pronoun sits before the verb, and that order is the neutral, natural one, not poetic inversion.

Aurélien CuvelierAurélien CuvelierAug 9, 2026 · Updated Aug 10, 2026
я тебя люблю
ya tebya lyublyu
the phrase

The ways to say it

я тебя люблю
ya tebya lyublyu
the phrase
я вас люблю
ya vas lyublyu
formal-pluralclassic literature more than modern life
ты мне нравишься
ty mne nravishsya
softerI like you: the step before love
я тебя обожаю
ya tebya obozhayu
playful-strongI adore you

How to use it

The verb is любить, and its first person я люблю hides a classic conjugation trap: an л appears out of nowhere (люб- becomes любл-). It is the flagship example of the mutation every -ить verb learner meets.

Because word order is free, я люблю тебя is also correct; putting тебя last adds a touch of emphasis on you. Russians say the flat version я тебя люблю in real life.

Watch out

Ты мне нравишься flips the grammar: the liked person is the subject and the liker is dative (мне). Learners who translate word for word from English routinely say the reverse of what they mean.

Learn the words behind the phrases

See what a NuanceDeck card carries ›

One email at launch, nothing else. No newsletter, no sharing.

Or start now: the beta is open, free ›
Aurélien Cuvelier

Written by

Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck: the app, and the verification pipeline behind its dictionary. Every entry is grounded in the official TORFL lexical minimum and a 20,000-word frequency corpus, and every example sentence passes a certification review before it ships.

More about how NuanceDeck is made ›