The Chinese written language is based on ideograms, meaning symbols originally derived from ideas. Within this language, there are over 50,000 distinct combinations of characters that make up the Chinese language. Most people commonly only know a few thousand.

Love is a particularly interesting character to study. To begin understanding the word love, one must literally start at the "heart" of the word.

xin is the Chinese pictograph of a heart. It signifies not only the tangible organ but also feelings, the mind, and the soul. It is the basis of the word love in the Chinese language.

When combined with other symbols depicting an embrace and a person, it turns into the word for love. Pronounced in mandarian as ai (sounds like someone saying "aye").


To say you love someone, you would say, Wo ai ni. Wo meaning "I" and ni meaning "you".

A lover or a person you love would be ai ren. ren being the word for man or person.

To cherish or protect you could use the word ai hu, with the second character here meaning securing.

One form of the word caress is ai fu, literally translating to "a stroke of love".

When you adore someone it is said as ai mu, a yearning for love.

And interestingly enough, because the first syllable of the country Ireland sounded so much like the word "ai", the way it is spelled in Chinese includes the word love at the beginning.