Romantic French Words

French is the language of love, and there is nothing as guaranteed to touch the heart of your beloved than an effusion of romantic French words. Spoken or written, French is a language that rolls delightfully off the tongue and the pen. Learning to speak French is an amazing way of increasing your knowledge and awareness (and a great way to up the wow quotient of your love life!). Quelle romantique!

You might think France is a romance language because the syllables sound like velvet, even if all you’re doing is giving the grocer in Provence a list of your grocery items.

France is only one of six widely spoken languages to be categorized as romance languages (the others being Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, and Catalan.) The word “romance” in “romance language” has nothing to do with lovemaking. Rather, the term comes from the common Latin, translated as “to speak in Rome.”

The word romance, having to do with falling in and being in love, has the same root with common Latin. The common form of Latin was used by average people in their everyday lives, not by the soldiers, the magistrates, or the priests, who used a higher class form of the language.

In Medieval times, popular novels and poems were written in the common form of Latin, and many of these works were about love and longing - hence, the word “romance” has come to mean now exactly what it meant then - the language of love, especially with those romantic French words.

Voulez-vous, Peut-Etre?

Song titles have long mined the French language for inspiration. Stevie Wonder had a smash hit in the 1960s with “My Cheri Amour,” which of course means “my dear love.” Another huge disco hit in the 1970s was the much more suggestive lyrics of “Lady Marmalade,” originally sung by Labelle (Christina Arguilera did a hit cover of it a few years ago.)

The sexy line in that song was “Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir?” Translated, that means “Would you like to go to bed with me tonight?”

And then if you should get your wish, your innamorata may be wondering of you: “Est-ce que tu m’aimeras toujours demain?” (“Will you still love me tomorrow?” to keep up this song theme.)

The romantic French words you’d probably like to use may fall somewhere between the sweetly romantic, and the overtly sexual.

Romantic French Word Tips

You can’t ever go wrong by whispering words of love in her ear, and what woman doesn’t want to hear how she looks? Try “tu est tres beau” to tell her she looks great.

“Pour moi, tu es si belle” means “to me, you are beautiful.” Or try this lovely expression to tell her she’s tres pretty: “tu es tres jolie” (the “jolie” as in Angelina Jolie. You can now see where and why she gets her name.)

You may want to lavish your boyfriend with the same praise. Try “Tu es si beau” (“You are so handsome.”) He’ll love your excellent taste!

Does she have beautiful eyes? Make sure you tell her with “Tu as des beaux yeux.” Add a “bleu”, “brun,” or “vert” if the eyes are blue, brown, or green.

If your beloved is a vision of sheer loveliness and you’re too overcome to say much more than “embrassez-moi!”, you had better pucker up. You just ordered her to kiss you!

Of course, if you want to be a shade more delicate about it, try the less direct but nonetheless charming, “Je voudrais t’embrasser,” and get ready to smooch.

Walk Down the Aisle

Perhaps the most romantic words you can whisper are those that are followed up with a diamond ring and a wedding date. “Will you marry me?” sounds lovely in any language, but particular amazing in the French: “Veux-tu m’epouser?”

Or you can just make your intentions clear with the unmistakable “Je veux t’epouser” (“I want to marry you.”)

If you use any of these suggestions for romantic French words, both your hearts will be singing - or “chantez!”