All About French Verbs Aimer

Aimer is one of the most common French verbs. It is a regular -ER verb, requires avoir in the compound tenses, and can mean to like or to love. There is a little bit of a trick to using aimer correctly with people and direct object pronouns which you will learn about in this lesson. Using aimer Aimer means to like or to love when followed by a noun or infinitive. Jaime Paris  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  I love ParisIl aime les chats  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  He likes catsAimes-tu voyager?  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  Do you like to travel? I love you When aimer is followed by a person, it means to love or to be in love with. You can use aimer to mean simply love with your family, but with other people, it means in love, so if thats not what you mean, you will need to qualify it (see below). Jaime Luc (mon frà ¨re). —  I love Luc (my brother).Il aime Chantal. —  Hes in love with Chantal.Je taime! —  I love you!​ I like you To say that you like or are fond of someone, qualify aimer with an adverb, such as assez, bien, or beaucoup. These adverbs make aimer less strong, so that it can be used with friends rather than family and lovers. Jaime assez Paul. —  I kind of like Paul.Jaime bien Ana. —  I like Ana.Jaime beaucoup Étienne. —  I really like Étienne.Je taime bien. —  I like you. Aimer with direct objects The direct object pronouns le, la, and les can only be used with aimer when they refer to people. The meaning of aimer with a direct object pronoun is the same as explained above. Je laime! —  I love him/her!Je laime bien. —  I like him/her. When the direct object means it (because you are replacing a non-human noun or a verb), you cannot use a direct object pronoun; instead, you must use the indefinite demonstrative pronoun à §a. Aimes-tu le tennis  ? Oui, jaime à §a. —  Do you like tennis? Yes, I like it.Nous voyageons beaucoup, nous aimons à §a. —  We travel a lot, we like it.Je tai à ©crit un poà ¨me—tu aimes à §a? —  I wrote you a poem—do you like it?​ Aimer in the conditional In the conditional, aimer is a polite way to make a request or state a desire Jaimerais partir à   midi. —  I would like to leave at noon.Aimeriez-vous manger avec nous? —  Would you like to eat with us?​ Saimer The pronominal verb saimer can be reflexive or reciprocal. 1. Reflexive: to like oneself Je maime en bleu. —  I like myself (how I look) in blue.Il ne saime pas. —  He doesnt like himself (has low self-esteem). 2. Reciprocal: to be in love, to love one another Nous nous aimons. —  We are in love.Penses-tu quils saiment? —  Do you think they love one another? Expressions with aimer aimer à   la folie  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  to be madly in loveaimer autant  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  to be just as happy (with, that), to preferaimer mieux  Ã¢â‚¬â€ to preferIl maime un peu, beaucoup, passionnà ©ment, à   la folie, pas du tout  Ã¢â‚¬â€ He loves me, he loves me notQui aime bien chà ¢tie bien (proverb) —  Spare the rod and spoil the childQui maime aime mon chien (proverb) —  Love me, love my dog Conjugations Present tense jaimetu  aimesil aimenous  aimonsvous  aimezils  aiment All tenses