Like

as in

"I do like you."

Variations: "You’re a good person ... You have some fine qualities ...If only I wasn’t going out with / or hoping to go out with someone better... or someone who I might like a lot more."

This is similar to her saying I "like" all kinds of food. It sounds positive, a quality, something to admire her for. Something for you to feel good about. But in truth?

What happens when you offer her something a little unusual to eat, like dog, snake or monkey eyes? Suddenly you realise that her “liking" doesn’t carry much weight.

That she “likes all kinds of foods” merely means she "likes all the kinds of foods that she likes" - which may be a great many or actually just a few but that is fine by her because that is what she likes and seems a lot to her.

As for “liking” you, rather than standing as a testament to her deep affection, it means something closer to the precise opposite : “I don’t like you.”

Or, more subtly: “I do like you ... so little that I can’t even be bothered to tell you that I don’t like you.”

This is bad, undoubtedly. But at least it isn’t the worst. She is partly saying, “I don’t want to never never never see you again.” Or at least: “I don’t want to argue with you and part on bad terms." Or at the very least: “I don’t want to put you in a sack with a stack of rocks and drop you in the middle of the ocean.”

At least not overtly. And in some relationships, this could count for quite a positive thing.

Still, it is a lethal phrase because it offers no comeback. Since she doesn’t mean what she is saying - since she means in fact that she doesn’t "like" you - nothing that you can say will matter to her.