<p>If I have to pick between the two I would pick 爱你自己. It’s the more natural one that people might actually say. 爱自己 sounds like a slogan to me, like Nike’s Just Do It.</p>
<p>However, as a Chinese person, I have to say they both sound unnatural, or &quot;translated&quot;. It’s a cultural thing that traditionally we don’t express love straight forward in explicit words. So both expressions sound étrangé.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-02T08:29:14.370Z
2021-12-02T08:29:14.370Z
hackape
<p>Why not use “自爱”？It is considered as a good quality of a person, similar things like 自尊 自强 自信 自觉。It's weird to tattoo 自爱 tho, since it’s sometimes used in propaganda.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-04T10:53:14.297Z
2021-12-04T10:53:14.297Z
xyz
<p>中文的口语里一般将爱自己说为自爱，举个例子，我们一般会说你要自爱，但不会说你要爱自己
In spoken Chinese, ‘爱自己’ is generally referred to as ‘自爱’.For example, we generally say '你要自爱', but we don't say '你要爱自己'。</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-14T16:52:02.777Z
2021-12-14T16:52:02.777Z
ANNNY
<p>Not necessarily answering the question directly, but somewhat of a 'fancier' version, which hopefully achieve the same intent could be 自立自强 which somewhat means 'self-reliance'-&gt;? 'love yourself?'</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-06T03:27:59.313Z
2021-12-06T03:27:59.313Z
ygeMason
<p>&quot;爱&quot; is the most artistic word for the purpose of exhibition/bragging. If you insist to display the phrase - love yourself, I would choose  '爱自己' to shorten the painful suffering/experience :)</p>
<p>There is a slight difference between '爱自己' and '爱你自己' though:</p>
<p>'爱自己' simply states &quot;love oneself&quot;; '爱你自己' is telling the viewer(s): &quot;be love themselves&quot;.</p>
<p>I guess this post will be closed eventually, as the answer is inevitably opinionated.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-30T21:17:48.650Z
Thank you I appreciate it !
Joseph
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-30T18:12:15.573Z
2021-11-30T18:12:15.573Z
r13
<p>Hi I was planning on getting tattooed 'love yourself' in Chinese. Should I use '爱你自己' or '爱自己'? Is there any difference and if so what are they?</p>

<translation><meaning><word-choice><simplified-characters><traditional-characters>
Hi I was planning on getting tattooed 'love yourself' in Chinese. Should I use '爱你自己' or '爱自己'?
# Hi I was planning on getting tattooed 'love yourself' in Chinese. Should I use '爱你自己' or '爱自己'?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-11-30)

Hi I was planning on getting tattooed 'love yourself' in Chinese. Should I use '爱你自己' or '爱自己'? Is there any difference and if so what are they?

**Tags:** translation, meaning, word-choice, simplified-characters, traditional-characters

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## 5 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-12-02. Score: 3

If I have to pick between the two I would pick 爱你自己. It’s the more natural one that people might actually say. 爱自己 sounds like a slogan to me, like Nike’s Just Do It.

However, as a Chinese person, I have to say they both sound unnatural, or "translated". It’s a cultural thing that traditionally we don’t express love straight forward in explicit words. So both expressions sound étrangé.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2021-12-04. Score: 1

Why not use “自爱”？It is considered as a good quality of a person, similar things like 自尊 自强 自信 自觉。It's weird to tattoo 自爱 tho, since it’s sometimes used in propaganda.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2021-12-14. Score: 0

中文的口语里一般将爱自己说为自爱，举个例子，我们一般会说你要自爱，但不会说你要爱自己
In spoken Chinese, ‘爱自己’ is generally referred to as ‘自爱’.For example, we generally say '你要自爱', but we don't say '你要爱自己'。


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### Answer by username_4 on 2021-12-06. Score: 0

Not necessarily answering the question directly, but somewhat of a 'fancier' version, which hopefully achieve the same intent could be 自立自强 which somewhat means 'self-reliance'->? 'love yourself?'


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### Answer by username_5 on 2021-11-30. Score: 0

"爱" is the most artistic word for the purpose of exhibition/bragging. If you insist to display the phrase - love yourself, I would choose '爱自己' to shorten the painful suffering/experience :)

There is a slight difference between '爱自己' and '爱你自己' though:

'爱自己' simply states "love oneself"; '爱你自己' is telling the viewer(s): "be love themselves".

I guess this post will be closed eventually, as the answer is inevitably opinionated.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you I appreciate it !  

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