Is there a person you love with great enthusiasm, whether he/she is the love of your life, your child or your best friend? Then this phrase is for you.
Ti adoro!
I adore you!
Adoro is the first person present form of the verb adorare meaning “to adore“. It means “to worship” when a higher being is in question, but it also translates as “to love” when talking about people or things.
- Gli egiziani adoravano numerose divinità. = The Egyptians worships many gods.
- Adoro i miei figli! = I love my children!
- Adoro questo scrittore! = I love this writer!
- Adoro andare al cinema. = I love going to the cinema.
- Adoro la pizza. = I love pizza
Ti is a direct object pronoun that means “you“. Unlike in English, object pronouns usually come before the verb in Italian. In this position, they are called unstressed object pronouns.
Non sai quanto ti adoro!
You don’t know how much I adore you!
In certain cases, however, such as when you want to give special emphasis to a statement or draw a comparison, it is possible to place the object pronouns after the verb. In this position, they are called stressed object pronouns.
Ti, for example, becomes te as a stressed object pronoun and follows the verb adoro. Quite often, Italians will also include the subject pronoun for extra emphasis, as in the example sentence below:
Io adoro te e il tuo entusiasmo per la vita!
I love you and your enthusiasm for the life!
Ti adoro vs Ti amo
Although the verb adorare can be a synonym of amare (to love), the phrases ti adoro and ti amo (I love you) are not always interchangeable.
If you’re about to express your feelings to a person you’re dating, and you’re quite serious about it, you will say ti amo. Ti adoro will sound like you like the person very much, but not to the point of wanting to spend the rest of your life with.
However, if you’ve been married to that person for a while, and you love him/her with great enthusiasm, ti adoro can reinforce the more frequent ti amo. It means you’re not only loving that person, but you also have a lot of respect and you appreciate the company and do things with.
Ti adoro can also be used with friends, if the love for them is really strong, but you wouldn’t use ti amo, unless you’re saying in a playful way.
In the past, we’ve written a number of articles about the various ways of expressing your affection in Italian on this website. You can find them all below!
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
