The standard word for ‘beautiful’ in Russian is красивый, but it is not the only one. Find out a few ways to say beautiful in Russian with this free lesson.
The Russian word красивый can be used to describe both men and women:
Resources for further reading:
Let's check out this lesson on the Beautiful in Russian.
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красивый
kraseevyi
beautiful, nice
Она красивая
ana kraseevaia
She is pretty
красивая девушка
kraseevaia devushka
beautiful girl
красивая женщина
kraseevaia zhenshchina
beautiful woman
Он красивый
on kraseevyi
He is handsome.
красивый парень
kraseevyi parin'
handsome young man
красивый мужчина
kraseevyi mushcheena
handsome man
You will notice, however, that the ending of the word differs when we describe females and males. This is due to grammatical gender. Every noun in Russian has a gender that dictates which adjective variant you have to use with it.
The same word can also be used to describe objects, e.g.:
красивый вид
kraseevyi vit
beautiful view
красивая юбка
kraseevaia yupka
nice skirt
красивое платье
kraseevae plat'ye
nice dress
красивые места
kraseevye mista
beautiful places
As you can see from these examples the Russian word красивый - beautiful can describe the appearance of people or things.
But, it can’t be used to describe weather - weather doesn’t have an appearance, in Russian we feel it, instead. So if you want to say 'beautiful weather' or ‘What a beautiful day!’ you can say:
прекрасная погода
prikrasnaia pagoda
beautiful weather
Какой прекрасный день!
kakoi prikrasnyi den'
What a beautiful day!
or if you’d like to make a compliment about a meal that you find beautiful or delicious, just say:
вкусно
fkoosna
delicious
or if you really like it:
очень вкусно
ochin' fkoosna
very delicious
Всё очень вкусно.
fsyo ochin' fkoosna
Everything is very delicious.
If you’d like to compliment your friend on their appearance you can say: you are beautiful Ты красивая / Вы красивая (We use the feminine form here because we normally compliment women and girls)
Ты красивая!
Ty kraseevaia
You're beautiful. (informal)
Вы красивая.
Vy kraseevaia
You are beautiful. (formal)
Or, you can say: "You look great":
Красиво выглядишь!
Kraseeva vyglidish
You look great! (informal)
Красиво выглядите!
kraseeva vyglidite
You look great! (formal)
If it sounds too complicated you can simply say:
Красиво!
kraseeva
It is beautiful!
Well, that’s it for now. I hope you found that helpful.
Here are a few recommended Russian lessons to try next!
До скорого! (da skorava)
Natalya Dubrov: Rocket Russian
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