I've been listening to a lot of music, and I've always seen Ai 愛 Koi 恋 and ren'ai 恋愛 used the same. Any help? Thanks! :)
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Partial duplicate: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2246/… Though the linked question doesn't explicitly address 恋愛– MindfulCommented May 4, 2018 at 18:06
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1 Answer
恋【こい】 and 恋愛【れんあい】 are basically the same. They both mean romantic love or romance, that feeling based on sexual attraction. 恋 is a native-Japanese word (wago or yamato-kotoba) whereas 恋愛 is a Sino-Japanese word (kango). Generally speaking, Sino-Japanese words tend to sound more technical or formal, as discussed in this, this and this. 恋愛 is the preferred word in news articles, verdicts and such. Well, in this specific case, 恋愛 is commonly used in casual situations, too. Still, 恋愛 tends to sound somewhat objective, whereas 恋 sounds more...romantic.
愛 is more generic familial love, human love, God's love, etc. The difference from 恋 is already covered in existing questions. See: Love in the air: 愛ｘ恋 {あい vs こい} and Translating a sentence with 恋 and 愛