I love you in Māori, and other words of love

I love you in Māori is Kei te aroha au ki a koe. ‘I love you.’ For more feeling, say Ka nui taku aroha ki a koe. ‘Great is my love for you.’ Both are built on aroha, which Te Aka Māori Dictionary defines as love, and also as compassion, empathy, sympathy and concern, so the same sentence can be said to a partner, a child, a friend or a grieving family. Below are the ways to say it, what aroha covers, the terms of endearment Te Aka records, the words for partners and marriage, two proverbs about love, and how to sign off a card with aroha nui ‘much love’.

Updated 19 October 2026 · 7 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

How to say I love you in Māori

Māori	English	When it fits
Kei te aroha au ki a koe.	I love you. I care about you.	The plainest form: a statement about now, to one person.
Ka nui taku aroha ki a koe.	My love for you knows no bounds (Massey University); I love you very much (Auckland Council)	Stronger. Add e te tau ‘my darling’ for a partner.
Ka nui taku aroha mōu, e te tau!	I love you very much, my darling!	The same, with mōu ‘for you’ instead of ki a koe ‘to you’.
E kore e mimiti te aroha mōu.	My love for you will never wane.	Poetic: a card, a speech, a promise.
E kore e ea i te kupu taku aroha mōu.	Words can’t express how much I love you.	Poetic, as above.

The first line is the one the course teaches. Kei te marks something going on now, au is I, and ki a koe is to you, one person. Love for two people is ki a kōrua, and for three or more ki a koutou: Aroha nui ki a koutou. ‘Much love to you all.’ The second and third come from Auckland Council’s “Māori phrase of the week”, which gave Ka nui taku aroha ki a koe, e te tau! and Ka nui taku aroha mōu, e te tau! both as “I love you very much, my darling!” Massey University lists Ka nui taku aroha ki a koe among its proverbs about love and translates it “My love for you knows no bounds”. Word for word it is great is my love to you, and both translations are fair readings of that.

The last two are from the same Massey list. Mimiti is to dry up or diminish, so the first says the love will never run dry, the image Pōkarekare Ana uses too. Ea is to be satisfied or settled, so in E kore e ea i te kupu, it will not be satisfied by the word, words are simply not enough.

Aroha meaning: why it is bigger than love

Te Aka gives aroha three senses. As a verb it is to love, feel pity, feel concern for, feel compassion, empathise; as a describing word, loving, affectionate, caring, compassionate, kindly, sympathetic, benevolent; and as a noun, affection, sympathy, charity, compassion, love, empathy. English keeps romance, pity and kindness apart. Māori keeps them in one word, which is why Kei te aroha au ki a koe can mean I love you to a partner and I feel for you to a friend having a hard time.

Te Aka’s own example for waiata aroha ‘song of love’ shows the range: a woman plays her love song “for her husband and her people”. The same width explains aroha mai, sorry (see common Māori phrases), and why Aroha was the second most popular Māori girls’ name registered in 2025–26 (see Māori baby names). The fuller story of aroha beside mana, tapu and utu is in Māori words with no English equivalent.

When Māori wants the romantic sense alone, it has words for that. Te Aka gives ipo as pertaining to love, as in waiata ipo ‘a love song’, and whaiāipo as to be in love with. In Pōkarekare Ana the singer says ka mate ahau i te aroha ‘I am overcome with love’, using mate in Te Aka’s sense overcome, deeply in love; the song is explained line by line in Pōkarekare Ana: the lyrics and what they mean.

Taku aroha or tōku aroha?

Both are correct. Tōku is the o form of my, the category feelings belong to, as in the course’s He aroha tōku ki a ia. ‘I feel for him.’ Taku is the neutral form, which Te Aka says is not governed by the a and o categories at all, so taku aroha is always safe. Why Māori has two words for my is explained in Māori possessives: a and o.

Māori terms of endearment

Each of these is in Te Aka Māori Dictionary with an affectionate sense. To call someone by one, put e before it, as in e te tau ‘my darling’, or say taku ‘my’ before it.

Māori	Te Aka’s meaning	How it is used
tau, e te tau, taku tau	husband, spouse, partner, lover, darling, boyfriend, girlfriend, sweetheart	A partner, or what you call them: Auckland Council’s phrase above ends e te tau ‘my darling’. Te Aka’s example is a farewell, e te tau pūmau, “my lifelong friend”.
ipo, taku ipo	lover, sweetheart, darling, beloved one	Te Aka’s example: E taku ipo, ka mau tonu taku aroha mōu kia hake rā anō taku tuarā, “My beloved, my love for you will remain firm until my back is bent.”
makau	favourite, object of affection, lover, spouse, wife, husband	A loved one or a spouse; it is also in Auckland’s name, Tāmaki-makau-rau.
kahurangi	treasured possession, darling, jewel	Also precious, as in Te Aka’s example Taku tau kahurangi, “my honourable lover”.
te kuku o te manawa	heartthrob, darling, beloved	Massey translates it “the pincers of the heart (the object of affection)”: the one who has hold of your heart.
tau o te ate	soul mate, lover, partner, darling	Te Aka’s first sense is heart-strings, deep emotion. Its example of this one: Kai whea te tau o taku ate?, “Where is my soul mate?”
e kare	dear, friend	Te Aka: usually an affectionate way to address a friend, not a lover.
kō	girl, younger woman, babe, darling	Short for kōtiro ‘girl’, used to address girls and young women, and sometimes a boyfriend.

Two that did not make the list

Lists online often give kuru pounamu and taku manawa as endearments. Te Aka gives kuru pounamu only as an ornament of greenstone, and manawa as the heart, including the heart as the seat of the affections, but records neither as a way to address a loved one. If you want my heart, the attested phrase is te kuku o te manawa, above.

Words for partners, dating and marriage

Māori	Meaning
hoa	friend, companion, mate, partner, spouse
hoa rangatira	spouse, partner: husband or wife
whaiāipo	sweetheart, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé or fiancée; to be in love with
tāne / wahine	man, husband / woman, wife
mārena	to marry (a loanword from English)
wahine mārena	bride
Ko Hone taku hoa rangatira.	Hone is my husband, partner.

Hoa rangatira works for a husband or a wife, and tāne and wahine leave the sentence to say whether a husband or just a man is meant. The rest of the family, from in-laws to grandchildren, is in Māori family words.

Love in whakataukī

Massey University publishes a list of whakataukī ‘proverbs’ about love. Three of them, with Massey’s translations:

Aroha mai, aroha atu: “Love received demands love returned.” Mai points towards the speaker and atu away, so it is literally love this way, love that way.
He aroha whakatō, he aroha puta mai: “If kindness is sown, then kindness you shall receive.” Massey shared it for Māori Language Week 2026.
Te kuku o te manawa: “The pincers of the heart (the object of affection)”, the endearment above.

More proverbs, and how to use one in a speech or a card, are in whakataukī: Māori proverbs and what they mean.

How to sign off a card or message with love

Te Aka gives aroha nui as much love, with deep affection, often used to sign off letters to friends. It is often run together as arohanui, and Te Aka notes that more correctly it is two words. Then add your name after nā ‘from, by’.

Māori	English
Aroha nui, Mere	Much love, Mere
Aroha nui ki a koe.	Much love to you.
Aroha nui ki a koutou.	Much love to you all. (Also said in sympathy.)
Ka nui taku aroha ki a koe, e te tau. Nā Hēmi	I love you very much, my darling. From Hēmi

For work email, where aroha nui would be too warm, the openings and sign-offs are in Māori email greetings and sign-offs.

Going further

Almost every word on this page, from aroha and hoa rangatira to whaiāipo, is in the vocabulary of our free te reo Māori course, with the grammar of kei te and taku behind them. The same question in another language is answered in how to say I love you in Shanghainese.