都说西方人喜欢夸张，在赞美女人容貌的问题上，他们是否还是有分寸和拿捏？看英文电视剧听惯了Amazing! Cute! Beautiful! Glamorous! Gorgeous!这到底是什么意思呢？

我们在ChineseSavvy Forums上讨论关于女性美。我好奇，问里面的外国人，英文中诸如美貌性感的词汇，到底有什么差别。以下是一个加拿大男孩的举例说明。

Zach: Let me try my best to answer. Mind you these are my opinions on the words, and the use of these words is not always universal.

Amazing

Amazing 不只指外貌迷人，还包括富有、成功、拥有值得赞美特质的意味。

Amazing does not always have to do with looks alone, but may be used to describe someone who is not only attractive, but affluent and successful, or particularly good at something that you find praiseworthy. If it is referring to looks alone, it's probably a more modern type of beautiful, with some sexiness mixed in.

A example of this gone wrong is the Miss Universe contests. The winner is supposedly not just beautiful, but all around smart, talented and kind-hearted. Of course, they all end up being pretty flaky.

Beautiful

Beautiful通常用在古典美人身上，只保留给少数人的赞美。

例：苏菲玛索。

Beautiful usually refers to classical beauty. I reserve this praise for the top few.

A good example of classical beauty is Sophie Marceau.

从性感到美貌，用Cute都可以。关键一点，人要可爱。不过Cute也常在小孩身上，所以也许有些女孩听到你说她Cute会不开心，好像赞美的诚意不够。

例：Jessica Alba

Cute has highly varying usages. I use cute all the time, and for me it ranges from sexy to beautiful, but always referring to someone who also looks nice. Someone who is attractive and knows it cannot be cute. Of course, cute is tricky, because you can also use it to describe children. Many girls don't like being called cute because they feel it's somewhat belittling. A good example of what I mean by cute is Jessica Alba (though in my opinion, she transcends these categories).

Glamorous

Glamour有关时尚、风度，尤其是金钱。还有地位，比如你能出入的场合。

例：Paris Hilton, Gwen Stefani, 更经典的代表则有 Marilyn Monroe

Glamorous does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with attractive. Glamour is the flaunting of fashion and style, and more often than not, money. It's also about position, who you know, what restaurants you can get into, that kind of thing. An example of glamour gone wrong is Paris Hilton. Modern glamour can be found in people like Gwen Stefani.

The bar for traditional glamour was probably set by the likes of Marilyn Monroe.

Gorgeous

Gorgeous有如异国风情诱人性感的一面

例：Monica Bellucci, Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria

Gorgeous usually has an exotic aspect.

I would call Monica Bellucci, Penelope Cruz and Eva Longoria gorgeous.

不过，这又让我想起中文里头的很多词：娇，姣，俏，秀，美，艳，它们对应的英文或者明星代表又是谁呢。还有妩媚，娉婷，窈窕，妖娆...换作外国人，也要晕了吧。








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