Valentine's Day: How to say 'I love you' in 10 different languages

The "most romantic" day of the year is just around the corner and at some point this weekend, most of us will panic buy cards, flowers and other assorted gifts for our significant others.

St Valentine's Day - which falls on 14 February – is on Tuesday, but if you don't have time to get a gift, you could try to impress your other half with your linguistic skills. As a helpful tool, here is how to say "I love you" in 10 different languages:

Dutch: Ik hou van jou

Afrikaans: Ek het jou life

Welsh: Dw i'n dy garu di

Mandarin: Wo ai ni

Finnish: Mina rakastan sinua

German: Ich liebe dich

Polish: Kocham Ciebie

Thai: Male - Pŏm rák kun, Female - Chăn rák kun

Arabic: Ana uhibbuka (to a man), ana uhibbuki (to a woman)

(This is the standard Arabic way to say "I love you" - different dialects and contexts decipher how this phrase is altered.)

French: Je t'aime

Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day?

One of the most popular stories is that St Valentine was a priest from Rome in the third century AD. When Emperor Claudius banned marriage after deciding single soldiers performed better, Valentine broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.

When Claudius found out, Valentine was thrown into jail and sentenced to death. In prison, he fell in love with the jailor's daughter and sent her a note signed "from your Valentine" before he was executed on 14 February – which is now marked as St Valentine's Day.

Others suggest the mid-February date was chosen to "Christianise" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia – a fertility festival. At the end of the 5th century, Lupercalia was eventually deemed un-Christian and the church declared 14 February as St Valentine's Day.

February has long been associated with romance, a month thought to mark the beginning of spring and fertility.

Some critics state the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules, written in 1382 by Geoffrey Chaucer.