The word you want is miq’varkhar. It is short, warm, and what Georgians actually say to each other. The textbook version, me shen miq’varkhar, with both pronouns spelled out, is technically correct but heavier. Georgian usually drops the pronouns because the verb already tells you who’s doing what to whom.
This post covers the phrase itself, how the same verb root attaches to anything you might love, and why the construction looks unusual to English speakers.
The phrase
Said directly to a partner, a child, a parent. Informal. The pronouns me (I) and shen (you) are already inside the verb, so the one-word form is the natural everyday register.
If you remember nothing else, remember this one.
A note on tone
Georgian has less “I love you” inflation than English. Couples don’t necessarily say it daily, partly because relationships here include other things that signal it more loudly. A long supra. A handwritten note tucked in a coat pocket. The grandmother-style way someone is fed at lunch. Miq’varkhar lands harder when it’s said less.
The other side
The verb pattern works just as cleanly the other way around.
Same verb, different ending. The gi- at the front and the -var at the end mark the new direction. The cinematic ping-pong of “I love you / you love me” is a single root verb, q’var, conjugated to point either way.
The same verb, attached to anything
The interesting part is what happens when the object isn’t a person. Georgian uses the same verb root for “I love” plus any noun, switching the ending from -khar (used when “you” is the object) to -s (used when “it / he / she” is the object).
Said with full pronoun for emphasis. The verb is miq’vars, the -s ending marking that the loved thing is Georgia, not “you.”
The same verb, redirected to a stack of dumplings. Georgian sees no problem with using the same word for a person and a meal, which is part of why it sounds emotionally generous.
You will use this one a lot.
A grammar note for the curious
The construction is the part learners always ask about. Why doesn’t Georgian have a regular verb for “love”?
It does, but love is one of a class of Georgian verbs called “indirect” or “inversive” verbs, where what English treats as the subject Georgian treats as the indirect object. Literally: me (to me) shen (you, the subject of the verb) miq’varkhar (you-are-loved-by-me). Other verbs in the class: minda (I want), mtkiva (I am in pain), meshinia (I am afraid).
This is why “I love you” carries the personal “you” suffix on the verb (-khar, the form for second person singular). The same verb root, q’var-, with a different suffix, points at a thing instead of a person.
And the noun
The noun form. Used in songs, toasts, and the third-glass speech of someone two hours into a supra.
What to actually say
Miq’varkhar daily, said quietly and meant. Me miq’vars [whatever] for everything else: the country, the food, the wine, the city. That’s the verb doing the work the language asks of it.
