How do you say they love in French?

Ils aiment for a group including at least one man, elles aiment for an all-female group. Both are pronounced with a liaison, il-z-aiment, and the -ent ending is silent. For stronger enthusiasm, ils adorent.

Why does j'aime bien mean less than j'aime?

Because with a person, bare aimer already means love. Any adverb you attach steps back from that and lands on friendly liking instead. With objects the effect disappears: j'aime bien ce film simply means I quite like it.

What's the difference between détester and haïr?

Détester is the ordinary word for hate and is what people say. Haïr is much stronger, more literary, and carries genuine loathing. In everyday speech, avoir horreur de and ne pas supporter are more common than either.

Do you need an article after aimer and détester?

Yes, always: j'aime le café, je déteste les embouteillages. The article stays even in the negative, because you are talking about a category rather than a quantity.

How do you conjugate haïr?

Je hais, tu hais, il hait, nous haïssons, vous haïssez, ils haïssent. The tréma drops in the three singular forms and returns in the plural. The h is aspirate, so nothing elides before it.

French grammar · Beginner

Love and Hate in French: Adorer, Aimer, Détester, Haïr

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

French runs liking and disliking along one scale, from adorer at the top down through aimer and ne pas aimer to détester and haïr at the bottom. The oddity in the middle is that adding an adverb to aimer weakens it: j'aime Paul means one thing and j'aime bien Paul means considerably less.

Ils aiment le cinéma, mais ils détestent les files d'attente.

They love the cinema, but they hate queues.

What it is

The four main verbs sit on a single line, and all four behave identically in grammar: they take a definite article before a noun and a bare infinitive before a verb. What changes from one to the next is only intensity, plus one trap where the adverb you add reduces rather than increases the strength.

J'adore le chocolat, j'aime le café, je n'aime pas le thé, je déteste la réglisse. — I love chocolate, I like coffee, I don't like tea, I hate liquorice.

How to spot it

All four verbs need an article in front of a noun, because they refer to a whole category rather than a quantity.

Ils aiment la musique classique. — They love classical music.
Elle adore les chiens. — She loves dogs.
Nous détestons le bruit. — We hate noise.
Je n'aime pas les films d'horreur. — I don't like horror films.

The article survives negation: je n'aime pas le poisson keeps le, unlike je ne mange pas de poisson.

Love and Hate Quick Reference

The scale from strongest positive to strongest negative

French	English	Strength
j'adore	I love, I adore	strongest positive
j'aime beaucoup	I really like	strong
j'aime	I like / I love	depends on the object
j'aime bien	I quite like	weaker than j'aime
je n'aime pas beaucoup	I don't much like	mildly negative
je n'aime pas	I don't like	negative
je déteste	I hate	strong negative
je hais	I hate, I loathe	strongest, formal or literary

Common Love and Hate Examples in French

The verbs across the situations where each one belongs:

Loving Things

J'adore ce restaurant.: I love this restaurant.
Elle aime beaucoup la peinture.: She's very fond of painting.
Ils aiment les longues promenades.: They love long walks.
On adore cette chanson.: We love this song.

For objects and activities, adorer is not hyperbole. French uses it far more freely than English uses adore.

Loving People

Je t'aime.: I love you.
Je t'aime bien.: I like you.
Elle aime son mari.: She loves her husband.
Ils s'aiment depuis dix ans.: They've been in love for ten years.

With a person, bare aimer is romantic or familial love. Adding bien deliberately steps back from that.

Disliking

Je déteste me lever tôt.: I hate getting up early.
Elle n'aime pas du tout ça.: She doesn't like that at all.
Nous détestons les mensonges.: We hate lies.
Il hait la violence.: He loathes violence.

Détester is the everyday word for hate. Haïr is much stronger and mostly belongs to writing.

Before a Verb

J'adore cuisiner.: I love cooking.
Ils aiment voyager en train.: They like travelling by train.
Je déteste attendre.: I hate waiting.
Elle n'aime pas conduire la nuit.: She doesn't like driving at night.

The infinitive follows directly, with no preposition. French has no -ing form to use in this position.

How the Scale Works

One grammar for all four verbs, one adverb that behaves backwards, and one verb with a tréma.

A Noun After Any of Them Takes an Article

These verbs describe a taste for a whole category, so the noun needs le, la or les. There is no partitive reading available, which is why du and de la never appear here.

Il déteste les araignées mais il adore les serpents.

He hates spiders but he loves snakes.

aimer / adorer / détester + le, la, les.

A Verb Follows Directly

Nothing goes between the conjugated verb and the infinitive. English uses an -ing form here, which has no equivalent in this slot in French.

Nous adorons marcher au bord de la mer.

We love walking by the sea.

j'aime lire, j'adore lire, je déteste lire.

Bien and Beaucoup Weaken Aimer With People

Adding an adverb ought to intensify, but with aimer plus a person it does the opposite. Bare aimer already means love, so any modifier pulls it back into friendship.

Je l'aime bien, mais je ne suis pas amoureux d'elle.

I like her, but I'm not in love with her.

aimer = love, aimer bien = like.

With Things, the Adverb Behaves Normally

The reversal only applies to people. For objects and activities, aimer bien and aimer beaucoup do what you would expect, and beaucoup is stronger than bien.

J'aime bien ce film, mais j'aime beaucoup l'autre.

I quite like this film, but I really like the other one.

Things: bien < beaucoup. People: bien < nothing.

Haïr Keeps a Tréma Except in the Singular

The tréma tells you to pronounce the a and the i separately. It disappears in the three singular present forms and in the tu imperative, and returns everywhere else.

Je hais l'injustice, nous haïssons l'injustice.

I hate injustice, we hate injustice.

je hais, but nous haïssons.

Common Mistakes with Love and Hate

Incorrect: J'aime chocolat. — I like chocolate.

Correct: J'aime le chocolat. — I like chocolate.

These verbs refer to a whole category, and French marks categories with the definite article. English drops it, which is exactly why the error is so persistent.

Incorrect: Je t'aime bien, tu es l'amour de ma vie. — I love you, you're the love of my life.

Correct: Je t'aime, tu es l'amour de ma vie. — I love you, you're the love of my life.

With a person, bien weakens aimer to friendly liking. Adding it to a declaration of love contradicts the rest of the sentence.

Incorrect: Nous haissons le mensonge. — We hate lying.

Correct: Nous haïssons le mensonge. — We hate lying.

The tréma is required wherever the ending is pronounced. Without it the letters would run together as a single sound, which is not how the word is said.

Incorrect: J'ai horreur les serpents. — I can't stand snakes.

Correct: J'ai horreur des serpents. — I can't stand snakes.

Avoir horreur governs de, and de plus les contracts to des. Unlike the verbs on the scale, this expression cannot take a bare definite article.

The Four Verbs Conjugated

Three of them are regular -er verbs and give no trouble. Haïr is the only one that needs learning, and it is also the one you will use least.

Present tense

Aimer, adorer and détester are identical in pattern. Haïr belongs to the finir group but loses its tréma wherever the ending is silent.

Pronoun	aimer	adorer	détester	haïr
je / j'	aime	adore	déteste	hais
tu	aimes	adores	détestes	hais
il / elle / on	aime	adore	déteste	hait
nous	aimons	adorons	détestons	haïssons
vous	aimez	adorez	détestez	haïssez
ils / elles	aiment	adorent	détestent	haïssent

The h of haïr is aspirate, so nothing elides in front of it: je hais, le haïr, la haine.

Past and future

All four take avoir. The imperfect describes a taste you used to have, and the passé composé usually reports a reaction to one particular thing.

Pronoun	imparfait (j')	passé composé (j')	futur (je / j')
aimer	aimais	ai aimé	aimerai
adorer	adorais	ai adoré	adorerai
détester	détestais	ai détesté	détesterai
haïr	haïssais	ai haï	haïrai
préférer	préférais	ai préféré	préférerai
apprécier	appréciais	ai apprécié	apprécierai

J'ai adoré ce film is the natural way to say you loved a specific film; j'adorais ce film would mean you used to.

The conditional, for politeness and regret

The conditional of aimer is the standard polite request, and the conditional of the others softens a judgement into an opinion.

Pronoun	conditionnel	sens
j'aimerais	I would like	j'aimerais un café
j'aurais aimé	I would have liked	j'aurais aimé venir
j'adorerais	I'd love to	j'adorerais y aller
je détesterais	I'd hate to	je détesterais vivre là
je préférerais	I'd rather	je préférerais rester
j'aimerais mieux	I'd rather	j'aimerais mieux partir

J'aimerais is the single most used conditional form in French, because politeness runs through this mood.

Stronger and Weaker Ways to Say It

Beyond the four core verbs, French has a set of expressions that are more emphatic, more casual, or more polite.

Beyond adorer

For enthusiasm above adorer, French turns to fixed phrases built on nouns and adjectives rather than to a stronger verb.

Je raffole des fruits de mer.: I'm mad about seafood.
Elle est folle de musique brésilienne.: She's crazy about Brazilian music.
C'est mon film préféré.: It's my favourite film.
J'en suis fan.: I'm a big fan of it.

Raffoler always takes de, and de contracts with the article: raffoler des chocolats, raffoler du fromage.

Beyond détester

Avoir horreur de and ne pas supporter are both stronger than ne pas aimer and much more common in speech than haïr.

J'ai horreur des mensonges.: I can't stand lies.
Je ne supporte pas le bruit.: I can't bear noise.
J'ai horreur d'attendre.: I hate waiting.
J'en ai marre de ce travail.: I'm fed up with this job.

En avoir marre de is informal but extremely frequent. En avoir assez de is its neutral equivalent.

Keeping it mild

French likes understatement for negative opinions, and several phrases let you decline without committing to dislike.

Ce n'est pas mon truc.: It's not my thing.
Ça ne me dit rien.: I don't fancy it.
Bof, ça va.: Meh, it's all right.
Je préfère autre chose.: I'd rather have something else.

Bof is a whole opinion in one syllable: unenthusiastic but not hostile.

Love and Hate FAQs

How do you say they love in French?: Ils aiment for a group including at least one man, elles aiment for an all-female group. Both are pronounced with a liaison, il-z-aiment, and the -ent ending is silent. For stronger enthusiasm, ils adorent.
Why does j'aime bien mean less than j'aime?: Because with a person, bare aimer already means love. Any adverb you attach steps back from that and lands on friendly liking instead. With objects the effect disappears: j'aime bien ce film simply means I quite like it.
What's the difference between détester and haïr?: Détester is the ordinary word for hate and is what people say. Haïr is much stronger, more literary, and carries genuine loathing. In everyday speech, avoir horreur de and ne pas supporter are more common than either.
Do you need an article after aimer and détester?: Yes, always: j'aime le café, je déteste les embouteillages. The article stays even in the negative, because you are talking about a category rather than a quantity.
How do you conjugate haïr?: Je hais, tu hais, il hait, nous haïssons, vous haïssez, ils haïssent. The tréma drops in the three singular forms and returns in the plural. The h is aspirate, so nothing elides before it.