Eu te amo, ti amo, yo te amo, je t'aime , i love you, ich liebe dich, I love you....
I am a Brazilian woman living in the Netherlands who emigrated out of love for a man, a city and a mentality. And sometimes I miss what I left behind there; family and friends, more hugs, more garlic in the food and a few words. 
Yes, words. During my integration exam, I realized that words related to love were missing in Dutch grammar. For example, the same friend/vriendin is used for friendship and love, which I always found very confusing, in Portuguese we have two very clear words, amigo/amiga  and namorado/namorada. But my most amazing discovery was that there was no verb we could use to express our love. 
Instead, the Dutch use the verb houden,  a hard, metallic and multipurpose verb that depending on prepositions can express many things, including grasping and possessing, actions that absolutely should not be related to love.
As I delved into the subject, I discovered that there was a verb for love in Old Dutch, lieven, but for unknown reasons it fell into disuse. I started a campaign to bring the verb lieven back into the Dutch vocabulary. Want to participate?
Buy a t-shirt Ik Lief Jou!
 
 
Model Sandra Bodick