Aimer: Full Verb Reference

Aimer is the verb to love and to like. It is one of the highest-frequency verbs in French, fully regular -er in conjugation, and surprisingly subtle in meaning. The conjugation is the easy part — same template as parler, with smooth elision (j'aime) due to the vowel-initial stem. The hard part is something English speakers rarely anticipate: a small word — bien — flips the verb between love and like, and the difference can be the difference between a declaration of romantic love and a friendly compliment.

The core rule, which this entire page revolves around: with a person as the direct object, aimer alone usually means to love (in the strong, often romantic sense), while aimer bien means to like (friendly, warm but not romantic). With a thing, both j'aime and j'aime bien simply mean I like — there is no romantic/friendly contrast because the romantic reading isn't available. J'aime le chocolat and j'aime bien le chocolat are near-synonyms; j'aime Pierre and j'aime bien Pierre are emphatically not.

Beyond this central distinction, the conditional j'aimerais is the standard French polite form for I would like (offers, requests, wishes), and the reflexive s'aimer covers both reciprocal love (ils s'aiment — they love each other) and self-love (s'aimer soi-même — to love oneself). This page is the full reference: every paradigm, every sense, and the friction points for English speakers.

The simple tenses

These are the tenses formed without an auxiliary. Aimer is fully regular — no stem changes, no orthographic adjustments, no surprises. The stem stays aim- throughout, with smooth elision before the vowel.

Présent de l'indicatif

Standard -er endings on the aim- stem.

The vowel-initial stem triggers elision and liaison everywhere: j'aime, il aime with smooth glide /i.lɛm/, nous aimons with /z/ liaison /nu.zɛ.mɔ̃/. Subject pronouns are mandatory, as always with -er verbs in the present.

Imparfait

Built on the aim- stem with the regular imparfait endings.

The imparfait of aimer is heavily used — past tastes and past loves both naturally take the imparfait (background description, ongoing past state).

Passé simple (literary)

Regular 1er-groupe pattern: -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent. The 3pl is the diagnostic literary form: ils aimèrent — with the grave accent, never aimérent.

The fairy-tale closing ils s'aimèrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants (or, more famously, ils vécurent heureux et eurent beaucoup d'enfants) is the French equivalent of "they lived happily ever after." The passé simple is essential here — it would feel wrong in any other tense.

Futur simple

Stem: the full infinitive aimer-, plus standard endings.

Conditionnel présent

Same aimer- base with imparfait endings. This is the most-used form of aimer in everyday French: j'aimerais is the standard polite I would like.

The form j'aimerais bien is even softer / more wistful than j'aimerais alone — see the aimer bien discussion below.

Subjonctif présent

Standard subjunctive endings on the aim- stem.

The 1pl aimions and 2pl aimiez are spelled identically to the imparfait — context distinguishes them.

Impératif

Three forms. The tu imperative drops the -s — aime, not aimes. This is the standard -er rule.

The imperative of aimer is rare in everyday speech — one rarely commands love. It survives mostly in religious or moral contexts.

Participles and gérondif

• Participe passé: aimé (agrees with preceding direct object when avoir is auxiliary)
• Participe présent: aimant
• Gérondif: en aimant

The participle aimé shows past-participle agreement when used with avoir and a preceding direct object. Les fleurs que tu m'as offertes, je les ai beaucoup aimées: feminine plural agreement on aimées because the preceding direct object les refers to les fleurs (feminine plural).

The compound tenses

Aimer uses avoir as its auxiliary in all compound tenses. The reflexive s'aimer uses être and shows agreement with the subject.

Passé composé

avoir (présent) + aimé

Plus-que-parfait

avoir (imparfait) + aimé

Futur antérieur

avoir (futur) + aimé

Conditionnel passé

avoir (conditionnel) + aimé

The conditionnel passé j'aurais aimé + infinitive is a very high-frequency way to express regret about an unrealized past action — equivalent to English I would have liked / loved to.

Subjonctif passé

avoir (subjonctif) + aimé

The semantic core: aimer, aimer bien, aimer beaucoup

This is the most important section of the page. The intensity scale of aimer depends on what comes after it and what comes with it.

With a person as direct object

The asymmetry is sharp: aimer + person = love (often romantic, sometimes familial). Aimer bien + person = like. Aimer beaucoup sits between — strong fondness, not romance. The intensifier bien — counterintuitive for English speakers — actually softens the verb when the object is a person. J'aime bien is less intense than j'aime.

The pronoun complication: when the direct object is a pronoun (l', la, les), je l'aime tends to default to the romantic reading (I love him/her), regardless of bien. To say I like him with a pronoun, you'd typically use je l'aime bien — but it sounds slightly stilted. More natural alternatives: il me plaît (I find him appealing), je le trouve sympa (I think he's nice), je m'entends bien avec lui (I get along with him).

With a thing as direct object

When the object is a thing — food, music, a place, an activity — both j'aime and j'aime bien mean I like. The romantic/friendly distinction disappears because the romantic reading isn't available for things.

For strong positive feeling toward a thing, French escalates to adorer: j'adore le chocolat (I love chocolate). Adorer is the conventional way to express the English emphatic I love (a thing) — j'aime le chocolat is more like I like chocolate; j'adore le chocolat is I love chocolate. In speech, adorer is much more frequent than aimer beaucoup.

With an infinitive — to like / love doing

Aimer + infinitive means to like / love doing something. No preposition between them.

In this construction, aimer and aimer bien are essentially synonymous — both express moderate-to-strong liking, like for English to like doing / to enjoy doing.

Other key uses

Aimer mieux — to prefer

Aimer mieux literally "to like better" is a colloquial alternative to préférer. It is very common in spoken French.

When aimer mieux introduces a clause about another subject's action, it triggers the subjunctive: j'aime mieux qu'on parte tôt — note the subjunctive parte. Same rule as préférer: imposed preference about another's action takes the subjunctive.

S'aimer — reflexive

S'aimer (reflexive) has two meanings depending on context:

1. Reciprocal: they love each other. The subject is plural, and the action is mutual.

2. Self-love / self-acceptance: to love oneself. Often with reinforcement soi-même.

In compound tenses, s'aimer takes être (as all reflexive verbs do), and the participle agrees with the reflexive pronoun when it functions as a direct object: ils se sont aimés (they loved each other — masculine plural agreement). For self-love: elle s'est aimée davantage après cette épreuve (she loved herself more after that ordeal).

Aimer in conditional structures — si tu aimais

The imparfait of aimer in si clauses produces hypothetical preferences:

High-frequency aimer idioms

• aimer à la folie — to love madly
• aimer comme un fou / comme une folle — to love like crazy
• à prendre ou à laisser (related expression for liking) — take it or leave it
• qui aime bien châtie bien — spare the rod, spoil the child (literally: who loves well, punishes well)
• l'amour-propre (noun) — self-esteem, pride
• un être aimant — a loving person
• bien aimé / mal aimé (adjective forms) — beloved / unloved

Aimer vs adorer vs plaire

Three verbs in this neighborhood. The functional split:

• aimer = to love / like (subject does the loving)
• adorer = to love (intense, especially for things or activities — the everyday escalation)
• plaire = to please (inverted construction — French structurally favors this for "I like X" with things)

The most striking difference for English speakers: French very often expresses I like X using plaire, with X as the subject and the liker as an indirect object — X me plaît (literally "X pleases me"). This is a different syntactic frame entirely.

The choice between aimer + DO and plaire à + indirect object is partly stylistic. For tastes (food, music, art): both work. For aesthetic appeal of a person you've just met: il me plaît (I find him attractive) is the standard, not je l'aime (which would mean romantic love). For deep ongoing affection: aimer. For a punctual reaction (the song just played, I liked it): plaire in passé composé feels natural (ça m'a plu).

Comparison with English

Three friction points:

1. The bien paradox. English bien would suggest emphasis (I like Pierre well — meaning "a lot"). In French, aimer bien with a person actually softens the verb to mean like (friendly), not love. This is the opposite of an English speaker's intuition.

2. No verb difference between love and like. English distinguishes them lexically (love vs like). French uses the same verb aimer for both, with the meaning hinging on the object (person vs thing) and the modifier (bien, beaucoup). This is a constant source of confusion: when a French speaker says je t'aime, the meaning is unambiguously I love you, never just I like you.

3. Conditional for politeness. English uses would like to soften requests. French uses j'aimerais (or je voudrais) for the same purpose. Je veux — direct present I want — sounds rude in transactional contexts. Always use the conditional with strangers, in restaurants, in shops, in formal email.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Saying je t'aime bien meaning "I love you a lot."

Mistake 2: Using je veux for polite requests.

Mistake 3: Using aimer + thing for emphatic 'love.'

Mistake 4: Forgetting agreement on the past participle with preceding DO.

Mistake 5: Adding de or à before the infinitive.

Key takeaways

Aimer is a fully regular -er verb meaning to love and to like. It takes avoir in compound tenses (j'ai aimé); the reflexive s'aimer takes être (ils se sont aimés). The conjugation contains no surprises — the depth of the verb is in its semantics.

The single most important rule: with a person as the direct object, aimer means love (often romantic), and aimer bien means like (friendly). With a thing, both mean like; for emphatic love of a thing, escalate to adorer. The intensifier bien — counterintuitive for English speakers — actually softens the verb with a person.

The conditional j'aimerais is the standard polite I would like in French — used for requests, offers, and wishes. Je veux (direct present) is too blunt for transactional contexts; use j'aimerais or je voudrais with strangers, in restaurants, in formal writing.

For preferring, aimer mieux is a frequent colloquial alternative to préférer. For self-love or reciprocal love, the reflexive s'aimer covers both meanings depending on context (ils s'aiment = they love each other; s'aimer soi-même = to love oneself). The construction with plaire (ça me plaît — I like it) offers a syntactic alternative for things, especially for aesthetic appeal and impressions.