Lesson 35

Describing beauty:

Your appearance is the way you look, and we sometimes use different words to talk about beauty in men and women. WOMEN can be attractive or good-looking [nice to look at], and we often use pretty [attractive] to describe a girl. We use beautiful or gorgeous for women who are very attractive. MEN can be attractive and good-looking, but also handsome. If men are very attractive, we can say they are gorgeous or very good-looking, but not usually beautiful.

Examples:

Liam has become quite handsome.

Bella looks gorgeous in that dress.

Olivia was very pretty when she was younger.

They’re a very good-looking couple.

Language help:

The opposite of beautiful is ugly, but it is not very polite to describe someone as ugly; ordinary [not special or different] is more polite. It also isn’t polite to say that someone is fat; overweight is more polite.

appearance مظهر

beauty جمال 

attractive جذاب 

good-looking حسن المظهر 

pretty جميلة / فاتنة 

beautiful جميلة 

gorgeous خلابة 

handsome وسيم 

ugly قبيح 

ordinary عادي / عادية

overweight وزن زائد