70+ Ways to Say “Beautiful” in Different Languages

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I’ve always felt like saying “beautiful” in another language expresses the feeling even better.

Loads of words in English mean “beautiful”. You can tell someone they’re cute, pretty, elegant, handsome… So many synonyms for the same word, and new ones popping up and fading out all the time (like “looking fly” or “on fleek” as examples).

Yet, I don’t know about you, but I get a bit bored using the same words all the time. That’s part of the appeal of learning so many languages. You can learn how to express yourself in new ways, and many languages have unique words that aren’t translatable. I love that.

There’s definitely no shortage of words for “beautiful” in different languages from around the world. Here I’m sharing how to express beauty in 15 languages, so you can choose the word you prefer to enrich perfect moments!

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Before we get into the article, if you are interested in learning any of these languages yourself, you should know that I’ve created a bunch of digital products to help with many aspects of language learning, and run a coaching program (Bootcamp) that has had many aspiring learners take part and successfully speak after 3 intensive months.

You can see that I have specific courses for beginners struggling with Spanish, French, German, Italian, English and Chinese.

Please do check out these offerings, since I have put a lot of work into all of these, and I know they’ll make a huge difference to your language learning project! Thanks for considering, and now, back to the article:

“Beautiful” in Different Languages

Here’s a quick preview of words for “beautiful” in 14 spoken languages, with American Sign Language below as the fifteenth. These are the basic forms used for the masculine/feminine comparison; some languages also change adjective endings according to their place in a sentence. The Irish phrase is explained in its section.

	Masculine	Feminine
Spanish	hermoso	hermosa
French	beau	belle
German	schön	schön
Korean	아름답다	아름답다
Japanese	美しい	美しい
Italian	bello	bella
Mandarin Chinese	美丽	美丽
Russian	красивый	красивая
Arabic	جميل	جميلة
Portuguese	bonito	bonita
Dutch	mooi	mooi
Irish Gaelic	go hálainn	go hálainn
Esperanto	bela	bela
Greek	πανέμορφος	πανέμορφη

Keep reading for more synonym words and expressions!

1. “Beautiful” in Spanish – Hermoso / Hermosa

In Spanish, you say hermosa or hermoso when you want to call someone “beautiful” or “gorgeous.” But there are tons of ways to express the same feeling in Spanish.

Hermoso/a is a little on the formal side, so here are some more words to say “beautiful” in Spanish:

• bello/bella – “lovely”
• guapo/guapa – “handsome/gorgeous”
• bonito/bonita – “pretty”

Reminder: For the Spanish adjectives listed here, the “o” form is masculine and the “a” form is feminine. Make sure to use the correct ending based on who you’re talking to, or what gender the noun is that you’re describing.

You could even have a bit of fun and describe someone as “tasty” or “dreamy like cheese” with estar como un queso.

(And if you want to be romantic with other words, here are 50+ Spanish phrases and words to share your love.)

2. “Beautiful” in French – Beau / Belle

“Beautiful” in French is either beau (masculine) or belle (feminine). As with Spanish, French has genders for words.

To simplify it, you could say magnifique (“magnificent”), which is used to describe something or someone as very beautiful or striking. Flatter your significant other with Tu es absolument magnifique (“You look absolutely stunning.”)

You could also tell someone they are joli (masculine) or jolie (feminine, “pretty”).

3. “Beautiful” in German – Schön

In German, you can use schön to tell someone they’re “lovely” or “beautiful”. But it’s also common to say it with more intensity: wunderschön, or “very beautiful”. Du bist wunderschön means “you’re very beautiful!”

You can also tell someone they’re “pretty” with hübsch, or “cute” or “sweet” with süß. Plus, German is full of fun, cute nicknames to express your adoration…

4. “Beautiful” in Korean – 아름답다 (Areumdapda)

In Korean, there are two main words for “beautiful” – 아름답다 (areumdapda, “beautiful”) and 예쁘다 (yeppeuda, “pretty”).

Both words can describe people as well as things. 예쁘다 is a common everyday choice for “pretty”, while 아름답다 can sound more expressive or poetic. You can use 아름답다 for someone’s appearance, voice or character, as well as for scenery.

Of course, there are varying levels of formality in Korean.

If you want to tell someone you’re very close to (like your significant other) that they’re looking very nice today, you say 예뻐 (yeppeo) or 이뻐 (ippeo). They both mean “pretty”; 이뻐 is a colloquial alternative. 아름다워 (areumdawo) is an informal form of 아름답다 and can also be a heartfelt compliment to someone you’re close to.

5. “Beautiful” in Japanese – 美しい (Utsukushii)

美しい (utsukushii) means “beautiful” in Japanese, but it’s a bit “intense” to say to other people.

You’ll often hear 綺麗 (kirei), which can mean “beautiful”, “pretty” or “clean”, depending on context. Before a noun, it becomes 綺麗な (kirei na). 素敵な (suteki na, “lovely” or “wonderful”) is another option for describing someone or something, including clothes.

Especially glamorous boys (think the boy band type or the hero in girls manga) would be 美少年 (bishounen, “beautiful youth”). But most girls use かっこいい (kakkoii, “cool” or “good-looking”) to describe an attractive guy.

美少女 (bishoujo) means “beautiful girl” and is a noun, not an all-purpose compliment. 可愛い (kawaii, “cute”) is another word you’ll hear often.

Fun fact: Kawaii culture is quite popular in Japan. You can learn more about it in this post.

6. “Beautiful” in Italian – Bello / Bella

In Italian, “beautiful” is bello/bella. You can also describe someone as “very beautiful” or “gorgeous” by using bellissimo (masculine) and bellissima (feminine).

Italian continues the theme of gender-based words here! You’ll see this in a lot of languages.

Bello is a normal way to describe a good-looking man, just as bella can describe a beautiful woman. The ending agrees with the person or noun you’re describing.

You could also say someone is attraente, or “attractive”. This word is gender-neutral, so you don’t have to worry about what gender you pair it with.

7. “Beautiful” in Mandarin Chinese – 美丽 (Měilì)

In Mandarin Chinese, 美 (měi) means “beautiful”. You’ll also see it in 美丽 (měilì), which can describe people or things. There isn’t a fixed rule that 美 on its own means a more intense or lasting beauty.

Besides 美丽, you can also use 漂亮 (piàoliang), which translates closer to “pretty”. It’s used to describe objects, people, scenery… anything, really. And if you want to describe someone as “elegant”, 优雅 (yōuyǎ) is the word you’re after.

Fun fact: Since Japanese takes some of its characters (kanji) from China, you’ll notice that the first character in 美丽 is the same as 美しい from Japanese – although the reading is different.

8. “Beautiful” in Russian – красивое (Krasivoye)

Like many of the other languages, “beautiful” in Russian changes based on what you’re describing. красивое (krasivoye) is the neuter form. To say, “beautiful” to a woman, you would use красивая (krasivaya), and to a man, красивый (krasivyy).

Милая (milaya) means “pretty” and it’s used affectionately, almost like “sweet girl”. You could describe someone as “charming” with очаровательная (ocharovatel’naya). Both of these are in the feminine form, so make sure to change them if you’re describing a neuter or masculine noun or a man. You would usually use these words for women, though.

9. “Beautiful” in Arabic – جميل (Jamil) / جميلة (Jamila)

In Arabic, you can use جميلة (jamila) to tell a woman she’s beautiful, or جميل (jamil) for a man.

You can also say وسيم (wasim) to describe a man as “handsome” or “good-looking”. ملفت للانتباه (mulfit lil-intibāh) means “attention-grabbing” or “striking”; it doesn’t necessarily mean physically attractive. Use the feminine ملفتة للانتباه (mulfita lil-intibāh) when describing a woman. For “alluring”, there’s فاتن (fātin), with the feminine فاتنة (fātina).

Besides keeping an eye out for the gender of the words, you’ll also notice these Arabic words change quite a bit based on the region it’s spoken in as well.

Fun fact: This happens with other phrases and expressions as well, such as Arabic greetings, which are different based on where they are used in the Arabic world.

10. “Beautiful” in Portuguese – Bonito / Bonita

Portuguese words for beautiful are similar to Italian and Spanish. Like in Spanish, bonito and bonita means “beautiful” or “pretty” for masculine and feminine nouns respectively. You can also say belíssimo for “stunning”… almost the same as Italian.

My favourite, usually reserved for ladies, is gata – very much slang, but the closest translation is along the lines of “cutie”.

As with other Romance languages, you’ll need to follow gender rules here too, with “o” marking the masculine and “a” the feminine in the examples here.

11. “Beautiful” in Dutch – Mooi

To tell someone they look beautiful in Dutch, you can say mooi, which means both “beautiful” and “handsome”. But most of the time you would use knap for “handsome”, typically for men.

Other ways you can express someone or something’s beauty:

• schoon – “clean” and “beautiful”
• heerlijk – “lovely”
• fraai – “fine” or “handsome”
• fijn – “nice”, “pleasant” or “fine”, rather than a general word for good looks

If someone asks how they look, you can say Gewoon mooi!, (“Simply beautiful!”) Or you can change mooi to its superlative form: Mooiste! (“Most beautiful!”)

12. “Beautiful” in Irish Gaelic – Go hálainn

The adjective is álainn. The phrase go hálainn is a grammatical construction, not an alternative spelling of the same word. For instance, “beautiful woman” is bean álainn, but “The woman is beautiful” is Tá an bhean go hálainn. A small difference, but something worth noting.

Another word for beautiful is taibhseach, which is more like “gorgeous” or “stunning”. You could also say galánta to describe someone as having an elegant beauty.

13. “Beautiful” in Esperanto – Bela

Bela is a catch-all Esperanto word for many similar words in English and does not change based on gender. It means “beautiful”, “pretty”, and “lovely”. You could also say eleganta for – you guessed it – “elegant”, or ĉarma for “charming”.

Esperanto is an incredibly easy language to learn. It’s a constructed language meant to bring people together from across the world. So you’ll notice a lot of words in Esperanto are similar to others on the list, or English words.

14. “Beautiful” in Greek – πανέμορφο (Panemorfo)

In Greek, πανέμορφο (panémorfo) means “very beautiful” or “gorgeous”, while όμορφο (ómorfo) means “beautiful”. These are neuter forms; both adjectives can describe people or things when their endings agree with the noun. So to say “beautiful girl”, you would say όμορφο κορίτσι (ómorfo korítsi).

You can also describe men as όμορφος (omorfos), or use ωραίος (oraíos, “good-looking” or “nice”). In Greek, the endings change based on gender, but it’s a bit different than the other languages we’ve looked at. For these adjectives, the singular endings are -ος (masculine), -η (feminine) and -ο (neuter). Other Greek adjectives can follow different patterns.

Bonus: “Beautiful” in American Sign Language

For “beautiful” in ASL, you can check out this short video that gives a great demonstration:

An easy way to remember it: the whole face is so beautiful, it pops… It sticks out from the crowd, it’s very striking. Watch the handshape as well as the movement around the face in the demonstration. In the BEAUTIFUL version described by ASL University, the hand closes and then opens out again, like a flower blooming.

Abundance of Beauty

Now you can compliment someone on their beauty in 15 different languages!

You can surprise your significant other by calling them beautiful, stunning, elegant, handsome, lovely, or attractive in all these languages… or you can practise with your pet.

Just make sure before you go saying any of these to strangers, you understand the cultural nuance (like I mentioned with Japanese and Korean!).

If you’d like to keep going, here are words for love from all around the world:

And if you’d like to actually use these compliments in real conversations, the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp will get you speaking your new language from day one.

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