This comes via Reddit and it has over 13,000 responses. I will be giving you the best responses, but let me give you the short answer — you don’t know the difference — not for sure anyway until you make a move. Granted, you can take a good guess if she starts to stack up indicators of interest in you, but women give off IOIs for all kinds of reasons. They’re just being friendly, they like you as a friend, they want attention, they want the ego gratification of a guy showing interest in them, etc, etc, etc. Rarely are you 100% sure until you make the pitch and she bites or rejects you.
Anyway, here are what I thought were the best answers from this thread:
— “There’s no good answer to that question – a million different people may give a million different signals/hints/signs that they are or are not interested in you romantically.
What I’ve found works for me and what I think is the kindest, least awkward way – both towards yourself and the other person – is to:
- Have some sort of consistently positive relationship/repeated interaction with them first, and then:
- In a light-hearted and friendly way and without implying any kind of emotional pressure, just ask if they’d like to go on a date with you. Use the word ‘date’.