Is this the world's most romantic word?

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Roses are seen at FloraHolland, the world's biggest flower auction, in Aalsmeer February 11, 2010. The auction expects bumper sales in the run up to Valentine's Day. REUTERS/Toussaint Kluiters/United Photos

Roses are seen at FloraHolland, the world's biggest flower auction, in Aalsmeer February 11, 2010. The auction expects bumper sales in the run up to Valentine's Day.

Credit: Reuters/Toussaint Kluiters/United Photos

LONDON | Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:06am EST

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - "Amour", the French word for love, has been voted the most romantic word in the world in a pre-Valentine's Day survey of language experts.

It narrowly beat "amore", the Italian word for love, although Italian was named the world's most romantic language.

Italian words also dominated the top places in the list of most romantic words

"Bellissima", which is both Italian and Spanish for "very beautiful", was voted the third most romantic word, while "tesoro", which is both Italian and Spanish for "treasure" (as in "Mi tesoro" / "My treasure") came fourth.

The survey was conducted by London-based Today Translations which polled over 320 of its linguists.

After Italian, they found the second-most romantic language was French, which was way ahead of Spanish and English in joint third place.

In the same poll, the firm asked its linguists to pick the least romantic-sounding way to say, "I love you" in any language.

The winner was Japan's "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu", ahead of the Welsh "rydw i'n dy garu di" and "qaparha", which, the firm noted, is Klingon, as spoken in the Star Trek universe.
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Comments (3)
elliott_king wrote:
Source of the survey – http://www.todaytranslations.com/press-room/55/is-this-the-world-s-most-romantic-word

Feb 13, 2010 5:16am EST  --  Report as abuse
Tokyo21 wrote:
The statements aboutn Japanese is no correct.
Nobody say like that.

Feb 16, 2010 4:39am EST  --  Report as abuse
Tokyo21 wrote:
Japanese says “aishiteru” in the case.
Nobody says “watashi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu” in Japan.

Feb 16, 2010 5:32am EST  --  Report as abuse
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