An appropriate Answer to "I love you"

Hi,

When you were told "I love you." from someone. To show that the feeling is mutual, is it appropriate to use "Me too." as an answer? No. 

If Tom says 'I love you' to Mary, what he is saying means that 'Tom loves Mary'. If  Mary says 'Me, too', what she is saying is that 'Mary loves Mary'.  Obviously, that's not what she means.

I was told not to use it, and say "I love you too." instead. You were given good advice. An extra bonus here is that the person gets to hear the word 'love' come from your mouth, which is always a nice thing to hear.

But someone insists that it is not only okay but also among the popular answer used by native speakers in both England and the United States. Yes, some people say it, but only people who do not love language and grammar. Personally, I could not love someone who does not love language and grammar, and I am sure that you feel the same way.

I guess it is related somehow to the popular argument of whether or not to use "me too" as an answer to "Nice to meet you."  'Me too' is completely inappropriate as a response here.

Best wishes, Clive

If my memory serves me correctly, I think there was an episode regarding this issue in Seinfeld.

Seinfeld said 'I love you' to his girlfriend, and the girlfriend simply says 'me too', and in the show, it's thought of as the girlfriend not feeling the same way, i.e. she doesn't love him, or that the emotional intensity is low, or that she just wants to pass it by (not fully accept it or acknowledge what she has heard).

The saying 'I love you' is a very important thing to say to someone, especially the first time.. it's a big deal to say this out aloud. But if the other person simply says 'me too', then that's not being appreciative of this fact. To properly and equally convey the fact the recipient feels the same way, the proper thing to say is 'I love you too', because it is more sincere and there's the word 'love' in it, which is very important. So to summarize, the idea is to equally give back, so to speak, and to make it very clear that the other person loves him/her too.

... the preceding was from a non-gramatical viewpoint.

Hi,

Needless to say "Me too." is not correct. But, what is your grammatical point of view for "You too."?
I've heard people of various status use it all the time.

It's grammatical, in the sense that it can be seen as an abbreviation of  'It's nice to meet you, too'.

It is, however, fairly informal. I probably wouldn't say it as a reply when greeted at the start of a job interview, for example. 

Best wishes, Clive