Aimer = to love, like something / someone

Ne pas + <infinitive> is the most common instance where ne pas does not bracket the verb. For example:

C'est mieux avoir aimé une fois que ne jamais avoir aimé du tout. -- It is better to have loved once than never to have loved at all.

Note that ne jamais are together and stand before the past infinitive (avoir aimé).

Hi David ,

'Aimer' quelque chose is, 'to like' and 'to love' something .

Your intonation would clarify the intensity of meaning I think.

You could always use the verb 'plaire' and its unusual construction to indicate plain old 'liking  something' -

Paris me plaît.

Have a look at the following lesson if you are not familiar with the verb 'plaire'

https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/how-to-use-plaire-to-express-liking-something-someone

Hope this helps!

Regards

David

With 'things' you need to add an adverb to 'aimer' to convey a higher intensity of feeling:

"J'aime beaucoup Paris" is stronger than for example, 

"j'aime Paris au printemps" ( I like Paris in the Spring)...

However today in a quiz I was asked to select multiple possibilitires for "How could you say 'I love sugar'?". I selected both "J'aime le sucre" and "J'adore le sucre". I was marked down because "J'aime le sucre" was only "Nearly" right. Why is that?

This lesson says:

Used on its own, aimer generally means 'to love' <someone> and 'to love or to like' (depending on intensity) <something>:

J'aime Marie
I love Marie

J'aime Paris
I love Paris

Elle aime sa nouvelle veste.
She loves her new jacket.

In the third example here "sa nouvelle veste" is a thing and in the quiz "le sucre" is a thing so why is "love"  appropriate in the first case but not the second?

Hi Mary,

"Je t'aime" is much more a fixed idiomatic formula to express romantic love than it is in English. Particularly in American English you the phrase "I love you" is almost in inflationary use in many different situation. Not so in French.

That said, it is apparently OK to say "Je t'aime" to one's child, too. I have this on the authority of a Belgian mother. Though that might be different in some other French speaking parts of the world.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Google translate says "I really like" is "j'aime vraiment". Why isn't it accepted?

Hi Jay,

'Tu aimes bien ma sœur?' is safer in this case!

'Tu aimes ma sœur? 'could be construed as love.

Hope this helps!

Bonjour Fiona !

J'adore is equivalent to J'aime beaucoup = I love / I like very much

The nuance is that you wouldn't use it to express love for someone, as in in love with.

You can say Je n'aime pas beaucoup [ça] = I don't like [that] very much

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Yes, but with the proper timbre, "Je t'adore" can make a heart melt.

-- Chris.

Bonjour,

Bonjour Joakim,

Here it's a question of intensity. When you use aimer for things, most of the time, you are correct, you would use 'to like' in English. However, sometimes you do say "I love pasta!": to mark the intensity, you can still use aimer, or adorer.

I updated the lesson to hopefully put that point across, please let us know what you think:
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/how-to-use-aimer-to-express-loving-and-liking-something-someone

A bientôt !