Which are the most flattering compliments?

How can you tell someone you like the way they look?

Whatever you choose to say, sounding sincere is the most important thing, so make sure you select a word or phrase you can deliver accordingly.

If you want to compliment a woman’s looks, ‘pretty’ is a fairly common term, perhaps too common, making it somewhat run-of-the-mill*.

In fact, it’s roughly on a par with the bland ‘nice’.

For this reason, it’s often best to use an amplifying adverb, such as ‘incredibly’ or ‘dead’, so the woman in question doesn’t feel you’re damning her with faint praise**.

“You look incredibly pretty with your hair curled like that.”

‘Lovely’ is on a similar level. So once again, an amplifying adverb comes in handy here.

“You look dead lovely in that dress.”

Comparing a woman’s beauty to something, using a simile***, can also be flattering.

“You look as pretty as a picture.”

“You look like a princess.” (Like something out of a fairy tale.)

“You look like a film star.” (A profession renowned for their physical attractiveness.)

These compliments can be used platonically, as can ‘beautiful’, a fairly strong word suggests someone is attractive, but not necessarily in a sexual way. It can also be applied to objects, scenery and suchlike.

When applied to a person - either male or female - it has the added bonus of also being able to describe their personality.

They can be ‘beautiful inside and out’.

The most common amplifying adverb to use with ‘beautiful’ is ‘absolutely’.

“You look absolutely beautiful tonight. I’m so proud of you.”

‘Bonny’ is a variation on this, commonly used in Scotland and the north of England.

“He’s a bonny lad.”

Superlatives are also great here. Try ‘amazing’, ‘delectable’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’ are extremely flattering. All these words collocate with ‘absolutely’ for even more emphasis.

“You look absolutely wonderful tonight.”

‘Utterly’ collocates with amazing, ‘totally’ with delectable.

“You look utterly amazing in that shade of lipstick.”

“You look totally delectable in that suit.”

‘Sic’ means excellent in British English slang.

Confusingly, it sounds exactly the same as the word for ill, so here, as is often the case, context is everything.

“Your shoes look sic.”

‘Gorgeous’ means very beautiful or pleasant, but is generally used to imply that the speaker finds a person sexually attractive.

‘Foxy’ also implies this, as does - unsurprisingly - ‘sexy’.

The word ‘handsome’ is often - though not always - chosen in preference to ‘beautiful’ when the subject is a man.

If someone is a little self-conscious about receiving compliments, a light-hearted, humorous approach can be helpful.

For example, if someone is dressed particularly smartly for a special occasion, you might tell them: “You scrub up well.”

(To ‘scrub’ is to rub something hard in order to clean it. So you are jokingly saying that when they make that extra effort, it pays off.)

Superlative versions of adjectives are great for everyone.

“You’re the most beautiful man/woman in the room/in the village/in Great Britain.”

A wonderful, though rather underused term, is ‘effulgent’.

It means radiant, as well as very beautiful or full of goodness.

So it’s a super evocative version of ‘beautiful inside and out’.

What greater compliment could there be?

* Everyday, ordinary.

** Praising someone in such a vague way that actually, you’re insulting them. Another example would be: “You look ok, not bad.”

*** A comparison which uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’.