Understanding Love

[HairyCockroach]

I know there are several ways to say you love something/someone. Here's the words and phrases I already know (or think I know).

愛 love (passionate)
こい love (romantic)
大好き really like / "like like"
愛してる I love you.

Are there more ways to say "I love you" or any other words that mean love?

[ParaParaJMo]

If you combine 恋 and 愛, it would be ren'ai, also meaning romance/love. saying 愛してる is a very strong way to express your passion and something you do not loosely use. 大好き is more common.

愛しい, itoshii, is something you can also say. it means cherish.

[Datenshi]

I have observed from my day-to-day interactions with other Japanese that a simple 「好き」 is probably the most commonly used term to refer to romantic feelings (as ParaParaJMo has already noted, 愛 has quite strong connotations in Japanese and you shouldn't use it very often unless you really know what you're doing).

>彼女が好きだ
>I love her

>好きな人がいる
>There's someone I'm in love with

>誰が好きなの？
>Who do you have feelings for?

etc.

恋 can be used in phrases/terms such as 恋してる (in love), 恋におちる (fall in love) and 恋人 (lover/romantic partner).

惚れる is also a word used to mean a crush or an infatuation, e.g.,

>彼は彼女に惚れている
>He has a crush on her

On a somewhat related note, I've noticed on several occasions instances where learners of Japanese use 愛人 for "lover" or "romantic partner". I've been given to understand that this is at least partly because that is the meaning of 愛人 in Chinese.

However, in Japanese, 愛人 is a word best avoided, as it usually exclusively refers to a partner in an extramarital affair. Just something to keep in mind.

[HairyCockroach]

I know suffixes can show affection but what about actual pet names? Do they exist in Japanese?

[Wio]

I think Japanese are just to embarrassed to say 愛してる, and just use 好き as a euphemism. It's pretty silly because the end result is that you have to find a way to say you just plain like someone.

[ParaParaJMo]

It's not they are embarrassed, they are discouraged from showing strong emotions and saying aishiteiru is an example of that

[Akiosama]

Keep in mind that while 愛人 ("aijin") tends to be frowned upon due to its typical context of "mistress" or (what the heck is a male extramarital partner called?) "extramarital partner", 恋人 ("koibito") is used to mean "lover" without the same context.

Also, within a marriage, often "あなた" is used from a wife to a husband in much the same way that "dear" or "darling" might be used in English. In the same vein of subtlety, 彼女 ("kanojo") is often used to mean "girlfriend" as well as a generic "she" - context is generally used to differentiate, unlike with the male equivalent where there is a difference - 彼氏 ("kareshi") for "boyfriend", while 彼 ("kare") is used for "he".

Japanese are remarkably subtle in their use of emotive language, despite their love of emotion in their pop culture.

My 2 yen,

Akiosama

[WhyWorry]

It's not they are embarrassed, they are discouraged from showing strong emotions and saying aishiteiru is an example of that

Yes, agree. So instead of telling you aishiteru, they will use suki da to tell you subtly that they love you, as Akiosama said.
YOu just need to look at the context to know what feelings are involved.