Oct 15, 2021

How compliment someone in Russian (+ useful tips for men)

Do you now how to make compliments in Russian? If you don't, that's not a problem - you will learn the key constructions and useful vocabulary in this post. You can watch a free video lesson first and check the summary of the lesson after.

How to make compliments in Russian |

Which COMPLIMENTS to AVOID

Compliments on someone’s look in Russian

Let’s first learn some useful constructions to compliment someone on their look:

Ты вы́глядишь… or Вы вы́глядите… (You look …) - and then you need to add an adverb that can describe the look of a person.

Possible Russian adverbs:

хорошо́ (well)

прекра́сно (nice, very well)

отли́чно (perfect)

превосхо́дно (superb)

шика́рно (gorgeous)

замеча́тельно (excellent)

чуде́сно (wonderful)

изуми́тельно (amazing)

великоле́пно (splendid)

сногсшиба́тельно (fantastically)

потря́сно (stunning)

кла́ссно, кру́то (cool, awesome)

If you want to compliment a person on something that he or she has (ex.: beautiful eyes, soft hair, etc.), use a construction of the Genitive case without the verb 'есть' (to have).

Here are some examples of compliments in Russian:

Compliments on style, fashion and different belongings in Russian

To compliment anything from clothing to looks, use the “I like” (Мне нравится…) construction.

“Мне нравится” + possessive pronoun + noun that denotes what you like.

Мне нра́вится

Мне нра́вятся (pl.)

Then you should add one of the following possessive pronouns: твой / ваш (m.), твоя́ / ва́ша (f.), твоё / ва́ше (n.), твои́ / ва́ши (pl.).

Possible nouns in Russian:

стиль (style), пиджа́к (a jacket)

су́мка (a bag), причёска (a hairstyle)

и́мя (a name), пла́тье (a dress)

ту́фли (shoes), брю́ки (trousers)

*You need to choose the possessive pronoun depending on the gender of a word: m. - masculine, f. - feminine, n. - neuter, pl. - plural.

Твой, твоя, твоё, твои (= your) are for people you know well.

Ваш, ваша, ваше, ваши (= your) are for strangers, authorities and formal situations.

Another way to compliment a person on something he/she has is to use the construction:

Тебе / вам идёт + demonstrative pronoun + noun (= that suits you) OR

Demonstrative pronoun + noun + тебе / вам идёт. With plural nouns you should use a verb form 'иду́т'.

Examples of compliments in Russian:

Тебе́ идёт э́тот шарф (This scarf suits you well)

Вам идёт э́та шля́па (This hat suits you well)

Тебе́ иду́т э́ти джи́нсы (These jeans suit you well)

Вам иду́т э́ти очки́ (These glasses suit you well)

And if you receive a compliment in Russian, here are some common ways to respond.

What to say in Russian to react to a compliment

And if you are really confident of yourself, you can say this

How to respond to a compliment in Russian

That's it! You have just learned the most common ways to make compliments in Russian. Watch the video to find out how you SHOULDN'T make compliments in Russian.

We have covered the most common ways to make compliments in Russian. Your goal now is to learn and practice these Russian words and expressions so that you can use them straight away when needed. You can find the audio files with pronunciation of these Russian phrases in my free guide 'Essential Russian Words and Expressions to Understand Spoken Russian'.

This guide also contains audio files so that you can listen to these phrases on the go: while driving, walking, doing sport or brushing your teeth. Make sure that you repeat these phrases yourself and try to imitate my accent.

Do you know what you can do now to show of your great knowledge of compliments in Russian? You can write a postcard to your friend in Russian. And it will be even better if you could write it in a beautiful Russian cursive.

It's also very important to know how to pronounce Russian words correctly as not every Russian letter is pronounced the same way as it's written. There are certain Russian pronunciation rules that are really easy to learn.