Does “люблю” mean “love” or “like” in Russian?

Я люблю covers both “I love” and “I like.” Я люблю маму is love; я люблю читать is simply “I like reading.” Add a verb in its dictionary form and you can talk about any hobby. The form itself has a quirk: the verb is любить, but “I” gets an extra л, люблю, while every other person keeps plain б: ты любишь, он любит.

That inserted л appears in the “I” form of many verbs whose stem ends in б, в, п or м: готовить → готовлю, спать → сплю, купить → куплю. For a milder “like,” Russians also use мне нравится (“it pleases me”). The clip runs through the whole set: я люблю читать, она любит смотреть телевизор, мы любим есть.