The 5 different ways people give and receive love include: Words of Affirmation, Physical touch, Giving and receiving gifts, Acts of Service, and Quality time. What do these mean?
Words of Affirmation
This type of love language involves communication. These individuals give and receive love through their words. Whether it be compliments, positive words, and words that express her/his love for one another. These individuals love to feel understood. If this is your love language it means the world to you when your partner tells you how attractive you look or expresses how proud of you they are when you have accomplished a goal. Regularly telling your partner how much you care about them has a big impact, if this is your partner’s love language.
Being genuine with your words is important as well. It is always heart-warming to hear “I feel so lucky to have you”, and “Thank you for all you do, I am so proud of you”, letting your partner know you appreciate them with your words, and being intentional is most important.
Physical Touch
This love language has to do with the physical way that one shows and receives love. Whether this be hand holding, cuddling, or being physically close with your partner in some way. Individuals with this love language feel most appreciated by another with physical acts. If this is your love language, you feel comfortable with public displays of affection, even in front of a group. You also enjoy the occasional foot rub or one of the many ways to show affection through physical touch. If this is your partner’s love language, it means the world to them when you initiate holding hands.
Giving and Receiving Gifts
When this is your love language, you appreciate gestures whether they be big or small, such as someone bringing you your favorite flowers or your favorite candy. This love language involves not only appreciation of such gifts, but the effort and the time that went in to getting this gift for the individual. They feel like this means that you know them, and you remember the things they like.
Acts of Service
This love language has to do with showing and receiving love through kind and helpful actions, examples of this could be cooking your favorite meal, organizing your space, or doing something to upkeep your home.
Quality Time
This love language is shown through spending meaningful one-on-one time with your partner. Whether it be going out to your favorite restaurant, or trying a new place together, or simply going for a nice long walk together; being present together is most important.
At the core of this love language is togetherness. If this is your love language, you enjoy this present time with your partner, where you are totally focused on one another. Using active listening skills, and limiting the use of technology during this time with your partner makes them feel loved and appreciated.
How Do Different Love Languages Rank?
Physical touch, as well as words of affirmation came in second place as the most common love language, where quality time was ranked the most common for men and women overall. We can enjoy each of these types of ways to give and receive love but knowing which of the love languages most resonates with us, will give us a better understanding as to what we enjoy most in a relationship.
There are various ways to figure out which of these love languages is your primary love language, and your partner’s. Simply asking someone what their love language is will tell you so much about them, and which of the love languages they most enjoy.
There are also quizzes online that can help you determine which love language you identify most with. Knowing your love language, and your partner’s can strengthen your communication skills. How each of us likes to receive love is individual, and using that knowledge can help you understand how you most feel loved and appreciated. This goes for your partner as well, and understanding his/her love language is important for giving love in a meaningful way.
Everyone is different in how they give and receive love. Once you know more about the different love languages and which one or which combination of a few you prefer, you can understand how it is that at different times you’ve felt varying degrees of love and appreciation from partners. As matchmakers, we find this sort of information helpful as we dig deeper into pinpointing what an ideal relationship looks like for the singles we work with.
Maclynn is a boutique, multi-award-winning introductions agency with offices in New Jersey, New York, California, and London. We’re world-renowned for bringing together highly compatible singles within our vast network of attractive, intelligent professionals, and our matchmakers are relationship experts in their own right. Get in touch today, and prepare for genuinely meaningful dating—just like you deserve.
