The world's linguistic experts are at it again...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/love...story.html - "Amour, the French word for love, has been voted the most romantic word in the world in a pre-Valentine's Day survey of language experts.

It narrowly beat amore, the Italian word for love, although Italian was named the world's most romantic language....

In the same poll, the firm asked its linguists to pick the least romantic-sounding way to say "I love you" in any language.

The winner was Japan's "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu," ahead of the Welsh "rydw i'n dy garu di" and "qaparha," which, the firm noted, is Klingon, as spoken in the Star Trek universe."

(via http://smt.blogs.com/mari_diary/2010/02/...love-.html)

No one really says 私はあなたを愛します though.

Well I can't disagree
The Japanese version doesn't really sound all too romantic. Especially if they just say 大好き or something.

And in what situation would you say it like that? If you're using 愛する with someone, you'd hopefully be at a level of familiarity in which you would say something other than わたくし

True love knows no words

Not that such silly poles mean anything but I don't think I would call these people "experts" when they put together a sentence in a language that is never uttered by natives of that language. In fact I've specifically heard Japanese natives making fun of such constructions as being completely unnatural.

Maybe I'm wrong and this sentence is uttered all the time, but if so the Japanese people have done a very good job at keeping it secret lol.

Saying you love something or someone is far more common in French/Itailan/Spanish culture as well, from personal experience, so it has that going for it.

But really its just based off notions of romance from movies and whatnot that so many americans think of France, italy, etc as romantic.

Something literally translated in an unromantic way word for word is unromantic. Color me surprised.

Anyways, obviously unf is a more romantic word than amour.

I knew this was coming...

Grammatically speaking, the sentence "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu" can't mean "I love you," and if you try to make sense of it, it'd be like "I don't love you yet, but I will in the future," "I will have sexual intercourse with you," etc. It never ever means "I love you." Even if you correct the grammatical error to barely mean "I love you," it's still a bizarre phrase at best.

Arguably the most famous translation of "I love you" is 月が綺麗ですね, which literally means "The moon is beautiful tonight."

According to: http://newslite.tv/2010/02/12/speaking-i...roman.html

A spokesperson for Today Translations, which carried out the survey, said: "When it comes to sounding romantic, the Romance languages, like French, Italian and Spanish, obviously have a head-start.

"Some other languages, on the other hand, sound more like a throat disease, even according to their own native speakers. And they make it very hard to sound romantic."

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Japanese is a throat disease.

magamo Wrote:Arguably the most famous translation of "I love you" is 月が綺麗ですね, which literally means "The moon is beautiful tonight."

That would explain Japan's declining population rates.
Still, it beats the Arkansas phrase "Get in the truck hun" as an expression of affection.

bodhisamaya Wrote:That would explain Japan's declining population rates.

In Japan sex often comes before you verbally express your love.

magamo Wrote:Arguably the most famous translation of "I love you" is 月が綺麗ですね, which literally means "The moon is beautiful tonight."

Hmm, this is something I've never heard before. Only time I can remember is in a song ”月が綺麗だね、夜に魔法をかける” are the lyrics...I think....

Does this show up a lot?

magamo Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:That would explain Japan's declining population rates.

In Japan sex often comes before you verbally express your love.

Yeah, I had sex with a woman three times before I could build up the courage to even ask her what her name was.

Nukemarine Wrote:

magamo Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:That would explain Japan's declining population rates.

In Japan sex often comes before you verbally express your love.

Yeah, I had sex with a woman three times before I could build up the courage to even ask her what her name was.

I have sex with women billions of times before I have the courage to sit next to any one of them in class. The mind is a powerful thing, ask bodhisamaya.

Asriel Wrote:

magamo Wrote:Arguably the most famous translation of "I love you" is 月が綺麗ですね, which literally means "The moon is beautiful tonight."

Hmm, this is something I've never heard before. Only time I can remember is in a song ”月が綺麗だね、夜に魔法をかける” are the lyrics...I think....

Does this show up a lot?

It's a very famous translation by 夏目漱石. It's not a "frequent" expression. It's like a famous quote. Several people posted the line when a thread about the OP's news started on 2ch. One (probably) Japanese guy asked why so many posts about the moon, so apparently not every native speaker knows it. Another famous translation is 死んでもいい by 二葉亭四迷, who is also one of the greatest Japanese novelists. It's often said that there is no Japanese equivalent of "I love you."

magamo Wrote:It's often said that there is no Japanese equivalent of "I love you."

Kinda feels that way given 愛 as a する verb feels kinda like a last minute addition to the language. Though 愛してる sounds and looks nice.

Of course if you really wanna be a charmer why not just come straight out with it.

好きだ！

お腹好いてる