Beautiful in Russian

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:

  • красивая женщина beautiful woman
  • красивая девушка beautiful girl
  • красивый мужчина handsome man
  • красивый парень handsome young man

Resources for further reading:

Let's check out this lesson on the Beautiful in Russian.

Pronouncing 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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