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Sentence #29056

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Comments

WarsawWill WarsawWill April 6, 2023, edited April 6, 2023 April 6, 2023 at 1:34:30 PM UTC, edited April 6, 2023 at 1:35:05 PM UTC link Permalink

"beautiful" is usually used to describe women, not men. However, some of the translations use a masculine adjective, for example:

Je suis plus beau que toi.
Soy más guapo que tú.
Sou mais bonito que você.

These to me are not really natural translations.

WarsawWill WarsawWill April 6, 2023, edited April 6, 2023 April 6, 2023 at 3:28:13 PM UTC, edited April 6, 2023 at 3:30:18 PM UTC link Permalink

@Cangarejo. Perhaps a case can be made for that, but I (BrE speaker) would always assume that "beautiful" referred to a woman. I know it's not Tatoeba's fault, but some of these are being assumed into Clozemaster without change, and I was forced to use "bonito" instead of what seemed obvious to me "bonita". As these sentences are mainly used for language learning, as an EFL teacher, I would have thought it would be best to stick to standard usage. But I've made my point, so I'll leave it there. In any case, what I'm more concerned about is what happens on Clozemaster. :)

marafon marafon April 6, 2023 April 6, 2023 at 3:42:57 PM UTC link Permalink

I've added a couple of tags. Maybe some other native speakers would want to give their opinion.

deniko deniko April 6, 2023, edited April 6, 2023 April 6, 2023 at 3:59:26 PM UTC, edited April 6, 2023 at 4:00:49 PM UTC link Permalink

Are you sure it can be only said by a female?

It's easy to find counterexamples where beautiful is used to describe a male, here's one:

https://www.quotes.net/mquote/129354

Good things about Mr. Ripley? Could take some time. Tom is talented. Tom is tender... Tom is beautiful... Tom is a mystery. Tom is not a nobody. Tom has secrets he doesn't want to tell me, and I wish he would. Tom has nightmares. That's not a good thing. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom is crushing me... Tom, you're crushing me!

I'm not a native speaker of English, but I've heard "he is beautiful" and "he is pretty" many times, my impression was that it was used ironically, or maybe describing a feminine kind of beauty in a man. You can use it about yourself ironically, I guess.

At least the Ukrainian translations with the male ending follow this ironic/feminine beauty in a man standard, so I'd keep them linked.

Again, not a native speaker, so would appreciate some more input from someone more competent.

CK CK April 8, 2023 April 8, 2023 at 1:35:21 AM UTC link Permalink

I, too, would assume that the speaker was likely a woman.

A man would much more likely say "I'm more handsome than you." or "I'm better-looking than you."

WarsawWill WarsawWill April 8, 2023, edited April 8, 2023 April 8, 2023 at 7:59:34 AM UTC, edited April 8, 2023 at 8:13:22 AM UTC link Permalink

@Deniko - Hi. I'm not saying that we never call a man "beautiful", but it's not very common, and I think it's used more to talk about character than appearance. As for "pretty", to call a man that could be downright dangerous, as it would be to suggest that he is effeminate looking. At my school, the expression "pretty boys" was used to describe beautiful looking young boys who had crushes on older boys (or vice-versa). Mohammed Ali famously said "I'm as pretty as a girl", because he knew it would get him attention, and of course there was never any danger of anyone suggesting he was effeminate looking.

As both language student and language teacher, my concern is that these sentences are used primarily by people learning languages, on platforms like Clozemaster, where they are shown without comment. For that reason, I think it makes sense to use the most direct and most common translation. And I don't think it's a good idea that learners of English get the idea that "beautiful" is a common way of describing a man's appearance, in the way that "good-looking" and "handsome" are.

Here are a couple of quotes from Wiktionary:

"Beautiful - Usage notes
When used to refer to human appearance, the word is more commonly used for women, with handsome being more common for men, though neither is incorrect. For a man, beautiful could connote a more delicate or androgynous appearance."

"Pretty" - Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.

And from Longman:

"beautiful - a beautiful woman or child has perfect good looks"
"pretty - a pretty girl or woman looks nice – used especially about a woman who has a nice face"




marafon marafon April 8, 2023, edited April 8, 2023 April 8, 2023 at 8:30:02 AM UTC, edited April 8, 2023 at 8:30:30 AM UTC link Permalink

> @needs native check
Removed this tag. The English is OK.

I added it to attract native speakers' attention :)

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License: CC BY 2.0 FR

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I am more beautiful than you.

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I am more beautiful than you.

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#1864360

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I am more beautiful than you.

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