Les sentiments

Je t'aime is I love you. Je t'aime bien is I like you, and that bien takes it firmly out of romance.

This is the opposite of what the adverb does in English, where adding a word like really intensifies. In French bien domesticates. It turns a declaration into a compliment, and it has caused more confusion than any other four words in the language.

What each one does

• Je t'aime. I love you. Romantic, or family. Not said lightly.
• Je t'aime bien. I like you. Warm, friendly, unmistakably not romantic.
• Je t'adore. Enthusiastic, but lighter than je t'aime. Said to friends, and to cake.

If you want to tell somebody you love them, the shorter sentence is the stronger one. Resist the instinct to add.

Aimer needs care generally

Aimer covers both love and like, and what separates them is the object. Applied to a person it leans towards love. Applied to a thing it means like: j'aime le chocolat is not a declaration.

To be clear about liking a person, bien is exactly the tool. To be clear about loving a thing, use adorer.

Sad arrives late

You can say happy, in love, worried, afraid and calm long before you can say sad, because triste only turns up in this chapter. That is a quirk of teaching by frequency rather than by topic, and it produces a learner who is fluent about contentment and silent about the alternative.

The reflexive turn

French likes making emotions into things that happen to you rather than states you occupy:

• Je m'inquiète. I am worrying, right now.
• Calme-toi. Calm down.
• Il s'est fâché. He got angry, at a moment.

Être inquiet describes how you are. S'inquiéter describes you doing it. The second is far more common in speech, and using only the first is one of the things that makes textbook French sound like textbook French.