How do you say “I love you” in Arabic?
Palestinians say bahibbak (بحبك) to a man and bahibbik to a woman, and Lebanese say bhebbak and bhebbik. Egyptians say bahebbak, and in the Gulf and Iraq it's ahibbak. The ending is what changes with who you're talking to.
I love you
بحبك
How each dialect says it
Tap to hear it the way people from each place say it.
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PalestinianJerusalem, Nablus, Gaza, Jenin0:01بحبكba-HIB-bak texted as ba7ibbakTo a woman: بحبِّك bahibbik
Palestinians usually keep the a-: bahibbak. You'll also hear bhibbak. “Ana bahibbak” adds “I” for emphasis.
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LebaneseBeirut, Tripoli, Saida0:01بحبكb-HEB-bak texted as b7ebakTo a woman: بحبِّك bhebbik
Often “b7ebak ktir” (I love you so much).
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EgyptianCairo, Alexandria0:01بحبكba-HEB-bak texted as ba7ebakTo a woman: بحبِّك bahebbik
“Ana bahebbak” is the classic line.
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GulfKuwait, the Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar0:01أحبكa-HIB-bak texted as a7ibbakTo a woman: أحبچ ahibbich
Saudis usually say “ahibbik” to a woman.
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IraqiBaghdad, Basra, Mosul0:01أحبكa-HIB-bak texted as a7ebakTo a woman: أحبچ ahibbich
“Ahibbak hwaya” means I love you a lot.
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Formal ArabicTextbooks, news, speechesأحبكu-HIB-bu-ka texted as o7ebokTo a woman: أحبكِ uhibbuki
Poems and formal letters. Said aloud it sounds like a declaration.
Saying it like you mean it
The root is h-b-b, the same as habibi. The b- at the front is how Levantine and Egyptian Arabic mark the present tense, so the Lebanese bhebbak is a whole sentence packed into one word: b- for now, hebb for love, -ak for you.
That last syllable carries everything. Change -ak to -ik and you're talking to a woman; in the Gulf and Iraq it becomes -ich. People who pick up the phrase from a partner often use that one form on everyone, which is how a new son-in-law can end up telling his mother-in-law he loves her in the masculine.
Many Arabic speakers save the plain phrase for moments that need it and say the rest sideways: ya rouhi, my soul; hayati, my life; tuqburni, may you bury me, meaning may I die before you. So when someone looks at you and says it outright, it tends to land hard.
In a sentence
How people actually use it, dialect by dialect.
- Palestinianوالله بحبكwallah bahibbikI swear I love you.
- Egyptianأنا بحبك أويana bahebbak awiI love you so much.
- Iraqiأحبچ هوايةahibbich hwayaI love you a lot.
People also ask
What's the difference between bahibbak and bahibbik?
Bahibbak is said to a man, bahibbik to a woman. The speaker's own gender doesn't change it. The same -ak/-ik split works in every dialect.
Is ana bahebak Egyptian?
Yes, it's the Egyptian form, and Egyptian films and songs carried it everywhere. Palestinians say something very close, bahibbak, and Lebanese say bhebbak.
How do you say I love you too in Arabic?
W ana kaman in Palestine and Egypt, w ana kamen in Lebanon, w ana ba'ad in the Gulf, w ani hamm in Iraq. All mean “me too.”
Related words
Words that tend to come up in the same conversation.
How we checked this page
Checked by two AI models, not yet by a native speaker
Each dialect form above is shown only if it passed an independent check. If we weren't sure how a dialect says it, we left that dialect out rather than guess. The audio is an AI voice tuned to each dialect; we're replacing it with real speakers over time. How we check words.