Main Difference – Like and Love
The main difference between like and love is that to like something means you find something agreeable, or satisfactory whereas to love someone means you feel deep attraction or sexual love for someone.
Like and love are two of the most common emotions or feelings experienced by people around the world. However, liking someone and loving someone means two completely different things. ‘Like’ means that you find something agreeable or satisfactory while love is an intense feeling of affection. You like the person you love, but that does not mean that you love the people you like. Let us first look these two emotions separately and then, move on to a discussion of the difference between like and love.
What Does Like Mean
You say that you like something, when you find something agreeable and satisfactory. We can like lot things and people in life. When one says he likes a person, this preference could be based on physical appearance or qualities of that person. Liking someone can be synonymous with respecting someone, agreeing with someone or even having a crush on someone, depending on the context. In the modern society, ‘like’ also refers to displaying approval through social media networks. Look at the examples below to understand how ‘like’ is used in different instances.
“I like to read books.”
“I like dogs.”
“I like the way he talks with people.”
“He likes that new girl with long, dark hair.”
I like ice-cream
What Does Love Mean
Love is a strong feeling of affection. Generally, love exists in stronger and longer relationships. It is an unconditional emotion that exists between a parent and a child, a husband and a wife, a brother, and a sister, etc. For example, when we talk about our parents, we don’t say, “I like my parents,” we say “I love my parents” instead. Likewise when we are in a new relationship, be it a romantic one or otherwise, we tend to say that “I like him or her” instead of “I love him or her.”
Nevertheless, we also use ‘love’ when we are talking about something we really like. For example, “I love skating.” Or “I love chocolate cakes”. Here, love is used in the place of ‘like’ for the purpose of emphasis. Look at the different usages of ‘love’ in the examples below.
“He loves his new car.”
“He loves his parents and wants to make them proud of him.”
“He realized that he was in love with her.”
Difference Between Like and Love
Like can be used to indicate a preference for someone or something.
Love is used to a strong feeling towards someone.
Liking someone means that you are happy to be with that person.
Loving someone means that you cannot live without that person.
Like is a more mild feeling.
Love is a deeper, stronger feeling.
Like may depend on factors like physical appearance, qualities etc.
Love is unconditional.
Like is associated with pleasant feelings.
Love is associated with more intense, strong feelings.
