The foggiest notion

English passion is lookalike Spanish pasión but what makes passionate - apasionado interesting are its dictionary definitions of violento, fanático, partidario, vehemento and febril.  None needs translating and all hint at instability. 

On steadier ground the verb apasionar often implies to like very much or to be mad about, particularly when referring to things rather than people so Pepita would be unlikely to announce me apasiona Pepito. 

It's more usual to use apasionar when there is no likelihood of reciprocation, so there’s nothing to stop Pepita from announcing me apasiona Kandinsky – I’m mad about Kandinsky.

Lose your head and your heart to passion and you say estoy enamorada or estoy enamorado as the case might be (but you’re hedging your bets with the use of temporary estar, not permanent ser).  It means I’m in love but if things are really frantically febrile, groan estoy loca por él or loco por ella - I'm mad about him or her, which brings up instability again. 

You might prefer those kissing cousins to want and to love which are both translated by querer: le quiero locamente - I want him or her/love him or her madly, something that normally amounts to the same thing anyway.

As an adjective, querido or querida - loved one corresponds to darling although as a noun, una querida has always been understood to mean a mistress.  However, regardless of whether a man has a lover or not, he often refers to his wife as mi mujer - my woman.  This reveals a good deal about Spanish love, Spanish marriage and Spanish possessiveness, because a woman here refers to mi marido, or mi esposo but rarely to mi hombre.

A loving mother

 

Amoroso has two sides to it and means amorous in the English sense as well as affectionate, so the phrase una madre amorosa has no Oedipal overtones and simply means a loving mother. 

Cariñoso also means affectionate and/or loving, while the endearment cariño is close to darling.  Like the English word it is a variation on dear – caro and notwithstanding the masculine-looking ending is appropriate for a female darling, too.

You might wonder what a foggy-looking adjective like fogoso is doing here but it’s in the right place because it means ardent.  Delve a little and you can link it to fuego or fire - as fierily, ardently passionate as it gets. 

And now we’re on the subject we might as well mention caliente which, preceded by estar, has a not-in-front-of-the-children-or-grandma definition of to be aroused.

The same message can be conveyed with ser, believe it or not, making this one of the very few occasions when you won’t get it wrong – grammatically, at least - whichever you choose.