Another Way to Say You are Beautiful in Chinese
Hey good-lookin’! In this post we’re covering 颜值 / yánzhí, a popular slang word in China at the moment that breaks-down as follows:
颜 / yán = face; beauty
值 / zhí = number; value; (to be) worth.
Together these characters have come to mean the value of one’s face or beauty – an “attractiveness index” (because we all know that beauty can be indexed and ranked, right?).
![Trudeau Canadas new Prime Minister](https://blog.lingobus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Trudeau-Canadas-current-Prime-Minister.jpg)
You’ll commonly hear:
Tā yánzhí hěn gāo.
他 颜值很高.
I/you/she/he is good-looking (has a high facial value).
Other examples taken from recent Mandarin headlines:
Gāo yánzhí guān èr dài néng dāng hǎo zǒnglǐ ma?
高颜值官二代能当好总理吗?
Can the good-looking son of an official become a good premier?
![An example of high score of attractiveness index (From ETToday)](https://blog.lingobus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Attractiveness-Today-ETToday.jpg)
Gāo yánzhí mèizi dǎchū tàiquán guànjūn céng bèi mièchēng wèi “bābǐ”
高颜值妹子打出泰拳冠军,曾被蔑称为“芭比”。
Good-looking female Muay Thai Champion contemptuously named “Barbie”
Dǎyìnjī yě kěyǐ gāo yánzhí.
打印机也可以高颜值.
Printers can also be good-looking
So there you have it. Now you know how to tell someone they’re really rather attractive as it’s done in the PRC.
![An example of low score of attractiveness index (From ETToday)](https://blog.lingobus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Attractiveness-Index-ETToday.jpg)
And if you’re wondering about the opposite scenario, both “颜值低” (literally: facial value low) and “颜值不高” (literally: facial value not high) are correct. However, since Chinese people are notoriously averse to being straightforward when it comes to criticism, you won’t often hear “颜值低” – that means straight up ugly. Instead, “他颜值不高” (“He’s not attractive”) is a better way to phrase it.
Tā yánzhí bù gāo
他颜值不高