Aimer = to love, like something / someone

Je n'aime pas beaucoup sortir ce soir. -- I don't like very much to go out tonight. 

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!

Thank you Cécile.I was a little puzzled, as I answered the multi-choice question as to what 'j'aime beacoup Paris' means with 'I like Paris' (which was marked incorrect, should have been 'I like Paris a lot). Seems I can user 'aimer' to express love or strong liking of Paris, but not a straightforward 'like'.

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)...

Thank you Cécile, that makes sense.

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:

Aimer - to love <someone> / <something>

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?

Sorry. Please disregard the above. I was tired last night and confused the two columns. I had only offered one choice and Kwiziq was correctly suggesting that there were two valid choices.

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).

Thanks very much 

Thanks very much 

I agree, I keep getting marked wrong for "aime vraiment" but doesn't that mean "really like"? 

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,

Yes it was helpful. Merci!

-> Here note that adorer does NOT mean "to be in love with", but expresses a strong liking of someone. When you use aimer beaucoup, it means 'to like a lot' / 'to really like'. Bonsoir Bella, These two examples are from the lesson and provide a phrase that is synonymous with the phrase presented and probably would have been marked correct. ATTENTION: If you wanted to say "I love you very much" in French, you would use a different expression: Je t'aime très fort. I love you very much. I hope this helps.

Hi Bella,

The phrase "Je t'aime" has acquired ideomatic status in French and is probably the least adulterated statement if you really want to express being in love with someone. Adding "bien" or "beaucoup" will only serve to lessen the power of this simple statement with respect to another person. Talking to several French native speakers about this, they told me unanimously that "je t'adore" can have different connotations depending on the situation and the context you are using it in. It can be a stronger, more committed version of "je t'aime" but it can also be a slightly watered down version. It just depends.

-- Chris (who is not a native speaker).

Bonjour Chris, J'apprecie votre réponse.

Merci beaucoup. Mais... La dévaluation de mot, non?

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 !

I was talking with a native French friend and telling her about the fine points of distinction between aimer/aimer beaucoup/aimer bien. She said that in everyday situations the way HOW you say it and your body language overrides most of the rules given here. She agreed that "aimer" for people can mean loving someone but also liking someone, depending on how you say it and under which circumstances. For things "aimer" always means "like", she said. I can't shake the feeling that this lesson is, maybe, overstressing the point? -- Chris.

I'm puzzled here. Why do you value your friend's opinion more ?