Perhaps this is why we are so prone to using qualifyers to shade our "kind" of love, i.e. "Platonic love," "romantic love," "young love." But the misconstrued semantics of love are legendary. I know I've gotten into trouble many times when a light, friendly "love" was taken for something else by the person it was directed towards, or by someone who overheard and got the gossip chain going! And once that happens, it seems the explanation, "No, I just meant I really love her as a friend" is never fully trusted and the relationship is never quite the same again. A language gap, indeed!

One well-known German word left out: Leibchen.

And, remember, "Love is never having to say your sorry!" Somebody how to say that awful phrase, so I thought I'd save somebody else the cringe of putting it out there!