How To Say Amazing, Brilliant, Fantastic in Chines

May.21, 2020

How To Say Amazing / Brilliant / Fantastic…in Chinese

The other day, I was chatting with one of my students before our class started. I asked him how was his trip to Yunnan. He told me that he was amazed by Yunnan, but when we switch the language to Chinese, it seems all the positive adjectives for "good" that he can instantly use are only "好hǎo".

It's not incorrect to describe everything with "好"：

- 云南怎么样？

Yúnnán zěnmeyàng？

How's Yunnan?

- 很好！菜很好，人很好，很好看，很漂亮……

Hěnhǎo！Cài hěn hǎo，rén hěn hǎo，hěn hǎokàn，hěn piàoliang…

Very good! The food is good. People are good. It's good looking. It's pretty.

Hey, if you can use tons of adjectives to vary "good" in English with "amazing, brilliant, fantastic, terrific, fabulous, awesome, incredible, marvelous…", why should you limit your Chinese with quite boring adjectives "好，好看，好吃，漂亮"?

After reading this article, I can ensure you will be equipped with a set of cool and modern adjectives to replace your boring "好".

Are you ready? Let's check them out!

_{① 优秀 yōuxiù}

_{Outstanding, excellent}

优秀 is used in written language and in a serious context. For instance, teachers use "优秀" to grade student's performance in the semester report.

Since a couple of years, the creative young generation moves "优秀" to the spoken language. It's also not that serious anymore, instead, you use "优秀" to give a compliment and inject the conversation with a trendy tone.

天哪，你身材管理得好（→ know more）优秀啊！

Tiānna，nǐ shēncái guǎnlǐ de hǎo yōuxiù a！

Oh my goodness, how outstanding your figure management is!

_{② 超棒 chāo bàng}

_{Awesome, super}

超棒 is not a word, it's a phrase. 超chāo means super, 棒bàng means awesome. 超棒 together can be generally used for describing everything for amazing and super.

这家云南菜味道超棒！

Zhè jiā Yúnnán cài wèidào chāo bàng！

The taste of this Yunnan restaurant is awesome!

_{③ 酷炫 kùxuàn}

_{Cool, fancy}

酷kù meaning "cool" is originally from English mimicking the sound. 炫xuàn means "dazzle". 酷 and 炫 together becoming a fashionable word indicating "cool, fancy". It is has started to be creatively used by young people. When you see some novel and interesting inventions, "酷炫" is definitely the best word for you to describe it.

我去(→ know more)，这是什么酷炫黑科技啊！

Wǒqu, zhè shì shénme kùxuàn hēi kējì a！

Oh my god! What's this cool new technology!

_{④ 惊艳 jīngyàn}

_{Amazing, striking, stunning}

A common Chinese way to say "amazing". 惊艳 is from ancient Chinese. 惊 means "surprised", 艳 means "gorgeous".

Chinese history-Character

Grammatically we use 惊艳 as a phrase 令人惊艳 (lìngrén jīngyàn) meaning "make people amazed, striking". But it seems nowadays people also start to use "惊艳" more flexibly in some casual context.

这个进球惊艳到我了!

Zhè ge jìnqiú jīngyàn dào wǒ le！

This goal amazed me!

你拍了好多惊艳的照片！

Nǐ pāi le hǎo duō jīngyàn de zhàopiàn！

You took so many stunning photos!

_{⑤ 神奇 shénqí}

_{Incredible, marvelous}

This young generation of Chinese is probably the most dynamic Chinese people that you could ever meet. They start to explore and enjoy themselves with more curiosity than ever before. This attitude is also shaping the modern Chinese language. Nowadays people are becoming more expressive and more willing to praise other people in a direct way. So it's interesting to see some written positive adjectives such as 优秀 / yōuxiù，神奇 / shénqí have been used so frequently in spoken Chinese in recent years.

The most suitable scenario to apply 神奇 is when you want to tell your friends some of your incredible experience.

针灸治好了我的背痛。太神奇了！

Zhēnjiū zhì hǎo le wǒ de bèitòng。Tài shénqí le！

Acupuncture cures my backache. This is incredible!

That's all for today's sharing! From now on, it's time to abandon 好 in your speaking! You've got so many fancy replacements, right? Keep practicing to reach a 优秀yōuxiù Chinese level！加油 jiāyóu!