Здравствуйте, дорогие друзья!

И снова добро пожаловать в блог «Как это будет по-русски»!

Hello, dear friends!

Welcome again to “Say it in Russian” blog!

My today's post is devoted to how to speak about appearance. And more specifically it is about such controversial topic as weight.

Like everywhere else in the world there are lots of people in Russia who can be a bit oversensitive about this issue. Many people think they are either too thin or too fat, and very few people indeed think they are just right. So of course this is one of areas where you would love to sound particularly diplomatic.

To begin with, I would like to offer you some common words on this topic provided in traditional books and video tutorials. They are: худо́й, то́лстый, стро́йный, по́лный and то́щий.

Brilliant! Out of these five words I would only use стро́йный, which means slim or slender or well-built, in the real conversation .

Well, I could also use худо́й which is thin when talking about a man but I don't think that would sound very complimentary.

Ты чего́ худо́й такой? / Why are you so thin? Не говори́те так! / Don't say that! Unless you are a ба́бушка (a grandmother, who would love to feed her thirty-year-old grandson with a decent meal).

По́лный means overweight. So I would also not say: он по́лный or она́ по́лная. Here the situation is the same as in English. If you say: he or she is overweight that will be a bit too straightforward. What one is expecting me to be saying is he or she is a bit overweight, which in Russian will be: Он слегка́ полнова́т. Она слегка́ полтова́та. Он немно́го полтова́н. Она немно́го полнова́та.

Слегка́ means slightly and немно́го means a bit.

То́щий is skinny like 'just skin and bones' and то́лстый means fat, while жи́рный means obese.

Great words for every day vocabulary if you want to have a couple of Russian speaking mortal enemies. In this case I would recommend you to be saying these words to women every day to make the effect even stronger:-)

But what to say then if you have chosen not to follow the path of the evil and be polite and friendly and, probably, even raise somebody's self-esteem?

Let's look at some situations and let's start from the gentlemen. I am more interested in them because I am a lady :-)

If a man is not too thin but at the same time without too many extra pounds.

A good way of describing such a man is кре́пкий.

Кре́пкий means strong, firm or robust. All men want to be strong that is why they will be glad to hear that. Кре́пкий тако́й мужчи́на. Such a strong / robust man. It is not a flirtatious phrase. Just neutral and positive.

However this phrase can only be applied to men who do look strong. Like have broad shoulders and some muscles or just are huge.

But there are also thinner men who do some sports but they are still quite thin and don't have broad shoulders, very big fists etc. In this situation I would say стро́йный being a lady. If I were a man I would rather say худо́й about another man.

In this situation you can also use the words: спорти́вный, атлети́чный, подтя́нутый.

The way it would sound casually is: Ну тако́й спорти́вный. Quite sportive. Ну тако́й, ви́дно, что спо́ртом занима́ется. You know, you can see, he does some sports. Ну тако́й подтя́нутый. Kind of fit. Атлети́чный дово́льно-таки́. Quite athletic.

There are also such men who don't do any sports except for chess, perhaps. They are just thin, not very athletic and not very muscular. In this situation I guess I would also apply худо́й or стро́йный. Again if you are a man saying стро́йный about another man would sound a bit weird.

For dessert we have gentlemen who are a bit overweight. Good words to describe them are большо́й and кру́пный which mean big and huge / large. I think, you understand it, big is not fat.

If a man has broad shoulders I tend to refer to him широкопле́чий and ignore the little belly and his few extra pounds. I just mention his strong side. The broad shoulders.

And still you can say немно́го полтова́н.

Now what about women?

If a lady or a woman is not too thin but at the same time not a bit overweight, just the golden middle, you can call her: стро́йная.

Она стро́йная. She is slim. Она о́чень стро́йная. She is really slim. Она така́я стро́йная. She is so slim.

You can also use the phrase краси́вая фигу́ра / хоро́шая фигу́ра – beautiful figure / good figure.

У неё краси́вая фигу́ра. She has a beautiful figure. С краси́вой фигу́рой де́вушка. A lady with a beautiful figure. С о́чень краси́вой фигу́рой де́вушка. A lady with a very beautiful figure.

Краси́вая така́я фигу́ра у неё. Please, pay attention to the word order. In real speech tit will be messed up a bit. Instead of У неё краси́вая фигу́ра you are very likely to hear Краси́вая (така́я) фигу́ра у неё.

If a lady or a woman is very slim and not very tall, you could describe her as petite or миниатю́рная. It is a very positive word in Russian.

If she is very slim and either petite or quite tall (like a model) you could call her хру́пкая.

The literal meaning of this word is fragile. But this is not a negative word. If fact quite the opposite. It is like delicate, very slim and at the same time feminine. So don't say то́щая, it is obviously quite rude, say хру́пкая.

If a woman is a gorgeous lady with nice curves and therefore is not so thin you can say:

же́нщина с фо́рмами – a woman with curves / shapes

же́нщина с пы́шными фо́рмами – a woman with gorgeous or lush curves / shapes

Пы́шeчка is a funny word. It literally means a lovely doughnut. Пы́шка is doughnut. But I give you no guarantee for the reaction.

A bit flirtatious word is аппети́тная meaning appetizing. Well, you will be getting a bit risqué now.

But there is a rule in Russia: it is better to pay a bit daring compliment then to say something negative about a woman's appearance; though it doesn't mean you should not be careful.

The last word I am going to teach you today is attractive and it can be applied to both ladies and gentlemen and in Russian it will be привлека́тельный / привлека́тельная.

Whatever you appearance is you must remember that you are о́чень привлека́тельный or о́чень привлека́тельная.

Beauty is not in the mirror, it is in the eye of the beholder!

Speak Russian and stay positive!

Thank you for reading this post. Hope you have enjoyed it.

I am looking forward to your feedback, your comments and your questions.

Have a good day!