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What is the difference between "I love that" and "I like that" in American English?

Say, I am a guy, and want to say I like another young man's shirt because it is from a popular college.

Should I say: "I like that" or "I love that"?

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    It terms of grammar, the gender of the people involved is completely irrelevant. Love is just an intensified version of like in this scenario. (As per the dictionary definitions.) It's entirely subjective which word to use.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Sep 12, 2018 at 16:53
  • @JasonB - I think that's exactly why this question was asked. The OP isn't asking for a grammatical difference, but for someone to provide some guidance on which word to use.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Sep 15, 2018 at 13:47

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Since 'love' is stronger than 'like', you might want to use 'like' for a normal level of approval, e.g. when you think a shirt looks good on someone, you think the cloth, colour, etc are nice, and maybe you could use 'love' when the shirt is so wonderful that you absolutely must have the name of the shop where it came from, in order to buy one for yourself.

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