Ai – 愛
Meaning: love
Pronunciation: ah-ee (or “aye”, like a sea captain)
About: Does Japanese have a word for love? Yes. Love in Japanese is ai. The verb is aisuru (愛する), to love.
And to say I love you in Japanese, you would say aishiteru (愛してる).
Aishiteru is a gender-neutral term. So, to say I love you to a man, you’d say aishiteru yo, and to a woman, aishiteru wa. But – and this is a big but – it’s almost never used.
Seriously, don’t go tossing aisuru around in conversation. Aisuru is not for how you feel about a bowl of ramen, no matter how great that ramen is. It’s not the right word for asking someone to be your girlfriend. It’s a deep expression of emotion, usually reserved for the most romantic or heartfelt moments of a person’s life, and even then? It’s a lot. It’s for weddings, proposals, death beds, not as a thank you for doing the dishes.