I Love You in Arabic: What to Say to Him, to Her, and How to Reply

Quick answer In Modern Standard Arabic, "I love you" is uḥibbuka (أحبكَ) to a man and uḥibbuki (أحبكِ) to a woman. In everyday speech most people use their dialect instead: baḥebbak / baḥebbik in Egyptian, bḥebbak / bḥebbik in Levantine, aḥibbak in the Gulf and kanbghik in Moroccan Arabic. The ending changes with the gender of the person you are talking to, not your own.

Saying I love you in Arabic is one of the first things people look up, and one of the first things they get slightly wrong. Not because the phrase is hard, but because almost every list online gives you the textbook version, and the person you want to say it to probably does not talk like a textbook.

If your partner is from Cairo, Beirut, Casablanca or Riyadh, they grew up saying it in their dialect. The formal version is correct, and it will be understood everywhere. It can also sound a little like a love letter written by a news anchor. This guide gives you both: the formal phrase, the dialect versions people actually say, how to reply, and the handful of love phrases that sound warm instead of rehearsed.

How to say I love you in Arabic: the basic phrase

The root of almost every form below is ḥ-b-b (ح ب ب), the same root as ḥubb (حب), "love," and ḥabibi, "my love." Once you hear that root, you start noticing it everywhere, in songs, in films and in family conversations.

In Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the full sentence is ana uḥibbuk (أنا أحبك), "I love you." The ana (I) is optional and usually dropped, because the verb already tells you who is speaking. The last vowel is what changes:

• To a man: uḥibbuka (أُحِبُّكَ)
• To a woman: uḥibbuki (أُحِبُّكِ)

In written Arabic both look the same, أحبك, because short vowels are usually not written. That is why a message or a card will work for anyone, while out loud you have to choose. If the short vowels are new to you, our guide to vowels in Arabic explains why they disappear in normal writing.

Use MSA if you are writing something formal, a poem, a wedding card, or if you genuinely do not know which dialect the other person speaks. In speech, most native speakers will smile at it the way you might smile at someone saying "I hold you in great affection."

I love you in Arabic to him and to her

This is the part people search for most, and the rule is simpler than it looks: the ending follows the person you are talking to, not the person speaking. A woman telling a man "I love you" uses the masculine ending. A man telling a woman uses the feminine ending.

• To him: the ending is -ak or -ka: uḥibbuka (MSA), baḥebbak (Egyptian), bḥebbak (Levantine).
• To her: the ending is -ik, -ek or -ki: uḥibbuki (MSA), baḥebbik (Egyptian), bḥebbik (Levantine).

Moroccan Arabic is the exception you will be glad about: kanbghik is the same for a man and a woman.

If you mix the endings up, nobody will be confused, and a partner will most likely find it sweet. But getting it right is the difference between sounding like you copied a phrase and sounding like you learned it for them.

I love you in different Arabic dialects

Here is how the phrase changes across the main spoken dialects. If you are not sure which one your partner or their family speaks, ask them. It is a good conversation in itself, and our guide to which Arabic dialect to learn explains how the regions differ.

Egyptian Arabic

baḥebbak (بحبك) to a man, baḥebbik to a woman. The ba- at the start marks the present tense in Egyptian. To say "I love you so much," add awi: baḥebbak awi. Egyptian films and songs have carried this version across the whole Arab world, so it is widely understood far beyond Egypt.

Levantine Arabic (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine)

bḥebbak (بحبك) to a man, bḥebbik to a woman. It sounds very close to the Egyptian form, just with a shorter start. "I love you so much" is bḥebbak ktīr. Levantine speakers also say bmūt fīk (بموت فيك), literally "I die in you," which means something like "I am crazy about you." The differences between these two big dialects go well beyond love phrases; see Egyptian vs Levantine Arabic.

Gulf Arabic

aḥibbak (أحبك) to a man. To a woman you will hear aḥibbik, and in Kuwait, Iraq and parts of the Gulf aḥibbich, with the typical Gulf "ch" ending. It is close to the MSA form without the final vowel, which is why it sounds a little more formal to Egyptian or Lebanese ears.

Moroccan Arabic (Darija)

kanbghik (كنبغيك), the same for a man and a woman. It comes from a different verb, bgha, which in Darija means "to want" or "to love." "I love you so much" is kanbghik bzzaf. If you say bḥebbak in Morocco, people will understand you, but it sounds like something from an Egyptian series rather than from the neighborhood.

How to reply: I love you too in Arabic

If someone says it to you first, you need the answer ready. The most natural reply in Egyptian and Levantine Arabic is w ana kamān (وأنا كمان), "and me too." You can add the verb for emphasis: w ana kamān baḥebbak (Egyptian) or w ana kamān bḥebbak (Levantine).

• MSA: wa ana ayḍan uḥibbuk (وأنا أيضاً أحبك), "and I love you too."
• Egyptian and Levantine: w ana kamān (وأنا كمان).
• Moroccan: ḥtta ana kanbghik (حتى أنا كنبغيك), "me too, I love you."

A one-word reply that works almost everywhere is simply ḥabibi or ḥabibti, said with a smile.

Arabic love phrases and terms of endearment

In everyday Arabic, people say "I love you" less often than they use a pet name. These are the words you will hear between couples, and also between parents and children, siblings and close friends. That last point matters: in Arabic, many of these are used for family too, so they do not always mean romance.

• ḥabibi (حبيبي) to a man, ḥabibti (حبيبتي) to a woman: "my love," "my darling." Used everywhere, romantically and casually.
• ya ʾalbi (يا قلبي): "my heart." In Egyptian and Levantine Arabic the q of qalb becomes a glottal stop, so it sounds like "ya 'albi."
• ya rūḥi (يا روحي): "my soul." Very common in the Levant.
• ya ʿumri (يا عمري): "my life," literally "my lifetime."
• tʾburni (تقبرني): Levantine, literally "may you bury me," meaning "I hope I die before you, because I could not live without you." Dramatic, affectionate, and very Lebanese and Syrian.

For "I miss you," Levantine speakers say ishtaʾtillak to a man and ishtaʾtillik to a woman, and Egyptians often say waḥashtini, literally "you made me miss you." In MSA it is ashtāqu ilayk (أشتاق إليك).

Arabic also has more than one word for love itself. ḥubb (حب) is the everyday word. ʿishq (عشق) is passionate, consuming love, the kind poets and singers mean. If you want more of the words people use every day, start with our list of common Arabic words for real conversations.

Getting the pronunciation right

Almost every form above contains the letter ḥ (ح), and this is where learners give themselves away. It is not the English h, and it is not the rough kh (خ) of German "Bach." It is a breathy, clean h pushed from deep in the throat, as if you were fogging up a mirror with your mouth open.

Say ḥabibi with an English h and it still works, but it sounds like a tourist. Try this: whisper "ha" as forcefully as you can while keeping your throat tight. That is close. Our guide to pronouncing the hard Arabic letters walks through ḥ, ʿ and the others step by step.

The double b matters too. uḥibbuk and bḥebbak have a doubled b, held for a split second longer than a single one. Rushing it is the second most common mistake.

When and how people actually say it

A few honest notes from conversations, not from dictionaries:

• Family use is normal. Parents say bḥebbak to their kids, friends say ḥabibi to each other. Do not read romance into every ḥabibi you hear.
• Public affection varies a lot by country and family. In many families, couples are much more reserved in front of parents than in private. If you are meeting your partner's family, follow their lead.
• The dialect is the compliment. Saying kanbghik to someone from Morocco, or bḥebbik to someone from Beirut, shows that you learned their Arabic, not a generic one. That lands much better than a perfect MSA sentence.

If you want to type the dialect versions instead of guessing, our Arabic dialect translator shows how a phrase changes between Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf and Moroccan Arabic.

The fastest way to say it like you mean it

A phrase you read once will not come out right in the moment. A phrase you have said out loud fifty times will. Yallah Speak lets you practice exactly these lines in your partner's dialect, with an AI conversation partner and instant pronunciation feedback on sounds like ḥ, so the first time you say it for real, it sounds like you. Start practicing free on iOS and Android.

Frequently asked questions

How do you say I love you in Arabic to a man?

In Modern Standard Arabic you say uḥibbuka (أحبكَ). In Egyptian Arabic it is baḥebbak, in Levantine Arabic bḥebbak, in Gulf Arabic aḥibbak, and in Moroccan Arabic kanbghik.

How do you say I love you in Arabic to a woman?

In Modern Standard Arabic you say uḥibbuki (أحبكِ). In Egyptian Arabic it is baḥebbik, in Levantine Arabic bḥebbik, and in Moroccan Arabic kanbghik, which is the same for both genders.

How do you say I love you too in Arabic?

In Egyptian and Levantine Arabic the natural reply is w ana kamān, "and me too." In Modern Standard Arabic it is wa ana ayḍan uḥibbuk, and in Moroccan Arabic ḥtta ana kanbghik.

What does habibi mean?

Ḥabibi (حبيبي) means "my love" or "my darling" when said to a man; the form for a woman is ḥabibti. It is used between couples, but also between family members and close friends, so it is not always romantic.

How do you write I love you in Arabic?

It is written أحبك in Modern Standard Arabic and بحبك in Egyptian and Levantine Arabic. The written form is the same for a man and a woman because the short vowel that marks the gender is usually left out.