【原】handsome、beautiful、pretty和good-looking到底有何差别？

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在《新概念英语》经典版第二册第56课的难点部分里，出现了handsome、beautiful、pretty和good-looking几个近义词的辨析，今天我们就来梳理梳理。

【备注】

以下单词的英文释义都选自柯林斯词典的在线版：https://www./dictionary/english。

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一、handsome

 

该词主要表示“英俊的；可观的”。如：

1、英俊的

修饰男性：A handsome man has an attractive face with regular features.

例如：He is a tall, dark, handsome sheep farmer.

修饰女性：A handsome woman has an attractive appearance with features that are large and regular rather than small and delicate.

例如：She's an extremely handsome woman with a beautiful voice.

2、可观的

修饰事物：A handsome sum of money is a large or generous amount.

例如：They will make a handsome profit on the property.

二、beautiful

该词主要表示“美丽的；出色的”。如：

1、美丽的

修饰人：A beautiful person is very attractive to look at.

例如：She is a very beautiful woman.

修饰物：If you describe something as beautiful, you mean that it is very attractive or pleasing.

例如：It was a beautiful morning.

2、出色的

修饰行为：You can describe something that someone does as beautiful when they do it very skilfully.

例如：That's a beautiful shot!

三、pretty

该词主要表示“标致的；好看的”。如：

修饰人：If you describe someone, especially a girl, as pretty, you mean that they looknice and are attractive in a delicate way.

例如：She's a very charming and very pretty girl.

修饰物：A place or a thing that is pretty is attractive and pleasant, in a charming but not particularlyunusual way.

例如：Whitstable is still a very pretty little town.

【注意】

pretty可以直接用作副词，表示“很；非常”，即：

You can use pretty before an adjective or adverb to mean 'quite' or 'rather'.

例如：I had a pretty good idea what she was going to do.

四、good-looking

该词主要表示“好看的”，即：

Someone who is good-looking has an attractiveface.

例如：Cassandra noticed him because he was good-looking.

五、用法区别

这组形容词都可用于形容人或物，表示“美丽”。

其区别是：

1、beautiful少用于男性；handsome用于男性，指“英俊；潇洒”；pretty偶尔用于男性时含贬义。例如:

He is young and handsome. 他既年轻又英俊。

2、在修饰女性时, beautiful指“漂亮”，表示令人愉快的和谐与完美，侧重阴柔之美，气质高雅；handsome指“端庄健美”，pretty指“娇小可爱”，good-looking仅指一般的好看。例如：

She is not really beautiful, but she looks pretty when she smiles. 她其实并不美，但笑起来很可爱。

Some girls are good-looking; a few, but very few, are beautiful. 有些姑娘长得还算好看，但是称得上美丽动人的却很少。

Would you describe that woman as handsome or beautiful? 你觉得那女子是体态端庄还是貌美动 人?

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