How do I say "I love you" in Japanese?

Unsurprisingly there are myriad ways to say such a thing in Japanese - here are the two big ones:



The one the Japanese themselves use is

"好きです。"　（suki desu） which is spoken like "ski des". And literally means "I like".

Like? Like doesn't sound like love! That's true. It doesn't but that's the way it's used. There is a stronger way to say it.

"愛してる"　（aishiteru） which is spoken like eye-shi-te-ru. And literally means "I love".

In Japanese you often drop the "you" part of "I love you". As it's assumed the other party will get that from context.