To say someone is gorgeous what do people usually say? And for something nonliving? Would it just be “magnifique” and “merveilleux” and stuff like that?
4 Answers
In French, we can translate "gorgeous" as different words depending on the context.
To describe a woman we got multiple words like "somptueuse" and "charmante".
For an object it could be "magnifique" and "merveilleux" as well as "raffiné" and "élegant".
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could somptueux/charmant be used for men too? to say a man is gorgeous? – jacoballens Jun 20 '19 at 09:22
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"somptueux" and "charmant" may be used for men, it just seemed unnatural for me to describe a man as gorgeous, but yes. – Sriks Jun 20 '19 at 09:31
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2Charmant(e) can be used to qualify more than just the external look: you can say someone is charmant because they are extremely nice, helpful, compassionate, etc. It is very common to say eg "J'ai eu quelqu'un de charmant au téléphone" - obviously, you can't tell if this person looks good or not. Still, you can also add sublime to the list. – Greg Jun 20 '19 at 10:15
For a drop dead kind of gorgeous woman, we could say canon :
'tain, elle est vraiment canon, la fille!
Applied to a man, I would use beau gosse :
Il est beau gosse
or :
C'est un beau gosse.
Beau gosse has been recently abbreviated in bg /beʒe/. I first heard it two years ago used by my ten-year-old son. It can be used as a form of address more or less ironically :
Alors, bg, ça va!
French people often use the term "admirable" for something or someone good to admire. For the word georgous, you can say it "parfait".
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In a familiar context you would often hear the phrase "trop beau" or "trop belle". When used in that way "trop" conveys a meaning of intensification, there's no implied judgement or criticism.
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