# Hello Beautiful



## Grefsen

I'm lucky enough to have a very good Russian friend who also happens to be a very attractive woman.    It always seems natural for me to compliment her on how beautiful she is and so I would like to send her an SMS that starts with "Hello beautiful (woman's name)" instead of just "Privet (woman's name)."  

I believe that *'krasivy'* means beautiful in Russian so would it be correct for me to write the following to start my SMS to her? 

"Privet *'krasivy'* (woman's name)" 

"Spasibo" in advance for your help.


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## Ptak

Privet, krasiv*aya*...
or
Privet, prekrasnaya...


P.S. 'krasivy' is male.


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## Anatoli

Haven't heard it used with the person's name, though. It sounds a bit unnatural to me. Although, "kras*i*vaya" (красивая) is a nice word, it's not used in addressing women. Ptak's suggested "prekr*a*snaya" (прекрасная) is better. 

If you want to be nice, you can say: privet, dorog*a*ya... (привет, дорогая...) - quite usual and polite (feminine for "dorog*o*y" - дорогой - "dear") or if you want to be really nice, say privet, m*i*laya ... (привет, милая ...).

Accented vowels are in bold.


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## Ptak

Anatoli said:


> Haven't heard it used with the person's name, though. It sounds a bit unnatural to me. Although, "kras*i*vaya" (красивая) is a nice word, it's not used in addressing women.


That's true, but one can say "privet, krasivaya _devushka_ [Mary]" (hello, the beautiful girl [Mary]).
So anyway "Privet, prekrasnaya [Mary]" is better.


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## User1001

Grefsen said:


> I'm lucky enough to have a very good Russian friend who also happens to be a very attractive woman.    It always seems natural for me to compliment her on how beautiful she is and so I would like to send her an SMS that starts with "Hello beautiful (woman's name)" instead of just "Privet (woman's name)."
> 
> I believe that *'krasivy'* means beautiful in Russian so would it be correct for me to write the following to start my SMS to her?
> 
> "Privet *'krasivy'* (woman's name)"
> 
> "Spasibo" in advance for your help.



Hello! You may want to go with something different, perhaps along these lines: "Allo <woman's_name>. Ti znayesh...ti takaya krasivaya segodnja." (Алло <woman's_name>. Ты знаеш...ты такая красивая сегодня.) It means, "Heya <woman's_name>. You know...you are so beautiful today." Telling someone that they are beautiful *all* the time isn't going to sound as sincere each time you say it, so you should say it every now and then just so she knows that you find her attractive, and also because she'll think that you're  chustvitel'naya. 

Anyway, in case you do go with my suggestion, you can always substitute krasivaya with the following: nezhnaya (tender), chudesnaya (wonderful), privlekatel'naya (pretty), prelesnaya (cute), etc.

Natives, please correct me if I am wrong with anything.


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## Anatoli

Little correction in spelling: 





> Ты знаешь...


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## Etcetera

Ptak said:


> That's true, but one can say "privet, krasivaya _devushka_ [Mary]" (hello, the beautiful girl [Mary]).


Well, I'm not sure I would be happy to receive such an sms.
My vote goes for dorogaya/milaya.


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## Ptak

tspier2 said:


> chu*v*stvitel'naya.
> preles*t*naya


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## Ptak

Etcetera said:


> My vote goes for dorogaya/milaya.


But it doesn't mean "Hello, beautiful..."
And it doesn't compliment her on how beautiful she is.
My vote goes for "Privet, prekrasnaya...".


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## cyanista

I would say Привет, красавица. It sounds very idiomatic. If you put a girl's name behind it, it will look a bit uncommon (Привет, красавица Наташа) but still much more natural than Привет, красивая Наташа. 

Just my humble opinion.


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## Ptak

cyanista said:


> Привет, красавица Наташа


Yes, I agree, it's very good and sounds natural.


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## Etcetera

I agree with Cyanista, too.
It's the best possible variant.


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## papillon

I also think that красавица would be the best version. If you must use it, that is...

Maybe it's just my cynical nature, but I haven't heard anyone use such a greeting in Russian with a "straight face". 

In English, "Hello Beautiful" can be a nice innocent salutation. In Russian, an attempt to reporduce it would result in something that would normally be said tongue-in-cheek, as in:
О, привет красавица, явилась не запылилась,
and such.


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## cyanista

papillon said:


> I also think that красавица would be the best version. If you must use it, that is...
> 
> Maybe it's just my cynical nature, but I haven't heard anyone use such a greeting in Russian with a "straight face".
> 
> In English, "Hello Beautiful" can be a nice innocent salutation. In Russian, an attempt to reporduce it would result in something that would normally be said tongue-in-cheek, as in:
> О, привет красавица, явилась не запылилась,
> and such.



I was cynical enough to have thought about it too.  But I figured the sarcastic meaning was heavily dependent on the tone and/or the context (as in наша красавица опять запорола график or ну что, красавица, признание писать будем?  ) so I wouldn't expect any tongue-in-cheekness in a friendly message, moreover, coming from a foreigner.

P.S. If I were a platonic admirer I would probably write something like "как поживаешь, свет очей моих".


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## Stephanus

Perhaps she would understand "Ciao bella!"


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## palomnik

Perhaps it is slightly sarcastic, but I remember seeing the movie _Funny Girl _with Barbara Streisand dubbed in in Russian when I was a student in Leningrad back in the seventies.  In the opening scene of the movie, Fanny Brice looks at herself in a mirror and says "Hello, Beautiful!"  In the Russian version she said "Алло, красавица!"  It works for me.


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## Ptak

Yes, "привет, красавица" is a little tongue-in-cheek (sometimes), but "привет, красавица [woman's name]" is absolutely ok, without any ironical sense.


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## Etcetera

Ptak said:


> Yes, "привет, красавица" is a little tongue-in-cheek (sometimes), but "привет, красавица [woman's name]" is absolutely ok, without any ironical sense.


I'm not so sure about the absense of any irony here...


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## Ptak

Etcetera said:


> I'm not so sure about the absense of any irony here...


If I get an SMS from my foreign friend, who doesn't speak Russian, that starts with "Привет, красавица [my name]", I'd NEVER find any ironical sense in it!


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## papillon

If you have to use a name, you can switch the order of words. Though Привет Наташенька-красавица sounds a bit folk-tale-like (think the Russian Byliny) it is, IMHO, quite pleasant.


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## Etcetera

Ptak said:


> If I get an SMS from my foreign friend, who doesn't speak Russian, that starts with "Привет, красавица [my name]", I'd NEVER find any ironical sense in it!


Well, indeed! I must confess that I happened to forget about the sender.
But maybe our discussion will be useful for other learners of Russian.


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## margo16

When my boyfriend sends me an email, he usually starts his letter with 'Привет, красавица!"Здесь нет никакой иронии. Все зависит от контекста.


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## scriptum

I would strongly recommend “привет, красотка!”. The phrase sounds a little bit weird, but that’s what makes it really effective. Always unexpected, it throws the woman off her guard. When I was young, I tried it several times, almost always with success. Eventually, one of the girls even married me.


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## Etcetera

Красотка has certain connotations in Russia since the famous films starring Richard Gear and Julia Roberts. I wouldn't recommend to use this word when addressing a woman...


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## Ptak

scriptum said:


> I would strongly recommend “привет, красотка!”.


It sounds rather unceremoniously.


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## cyanista

I wouldn't be delighted at being called красотка.  It sounds casual and slightly vulgar. My associations: a fast-driving car screeches to a halt in front of you and a sleazy guy shouts, Ну чё, красотка, прокатимся с ветерком? 

Yuuuk!


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## Ptak

cyanista said:


> My associations: a fast-driving car screeches to a halt in front of you and a sleazy guy shouts, Ну чё, красотка, прокатимся с ветерком?


These are my associations too )))


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## Grefsen

Etcetera said:


> Well, indeed! I must confess that I happened to forget about the sender.
> But maybe our discussion will be useful for other learners of Russian.



Yes, it looks like you are having an interesting discussion, but please remember that some of us who are just learning Russian don't understand the Cyrillic alphabet.  Even if I did understand Cyrillic it currently isn't possible for me to send SMSs using Cyrillic. 

In any event, I decided to go with the suggestion made by *Ptak* of "Privet, prekrasnaya..."
I'm seeing my beautiful Russian friend this afternoon so I guess I'll be getting some feedback about my SMS then. 

"Spasibo" to everyone for all of your help.


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## Etcetera

You're welcome, Grefsen. 
And good luck to you both.


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## Anatoli

Grefsen said:


> Yes, it looks like you are having an interesting discussion, but please remember that some of us who are just learning Russian don't understand the Cyrillic alphabet.  Even if I did understand Cyrillic it currently isn't possible for me to send SMSs using Cyrillic.


Start learning Russian and start by learning our alphabet, then you will really impress her  No, you probably can't use Cyrillic letters in SMS in the US but you will be able to romanise words.

There are different standards, choose one from this table.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian#Transliteration_table

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language#Alphabet


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## Grefsen

Anatoli said:


> If you want to be nice, you can say: privet, dorog*a*ya... (привет, дорогая...) - quite usual and polite (feminine for "dorog*o*y" - дорогой - "dear") or if you want to be really nice, say privet, m*i*laya ... (привет, милая ...).
> 
> Accented vowels are in bold.



"Spasibo" for all of your excellent suggestions *Anatoli*.    I have used both "dorog*a*ya" and "privet, m*i*laya" in emails and SMSs sent to another very beautiful Russian female friend of mine and I'm happy to say that I received very positive feedback afterwards.  

Doesn't "dorogaya" basically mean "dear" while "milaya" means "sweet" in English?


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## Grefsen

Stephanus said:


> Perhaps she would understand "Ciao bella!"


Actually she would, but she is always much more impressed when I use Russian words and expressions.


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## Etcetera

Grefsen said:


> Doesn't "dorogaya" basically mean "dear" while "milaya" means "sweet" in English?


You're right.
My Russian-English dictionary also suggests translating милая as 'dear' if it's used to address someone.


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## Crescent

Grefsen said:


> Doesn't "dorogaya" basically mean "dear" while "milaya" means "sweet" in English?



Hi, Grefsen! 
Personally, I would translate ''милая'' as ''sweetheart'' - sounds a little bit more affectionate that way, doesn't it?  Just like the russian term originally does.


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## Grefsen

Crescent said:


> Hi, Grefsen!



'Privet' *Crescent*!  I'm sure you can probably guess who I  sent the SMS to.   

I have to tell you too that this very beautiful Russian friend  of mine was very impressed with my SMS.   

"Spasibo" again to everyone for your help.


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## Q-cumber

palomnik said:


> In the Russian version she said "Алло, красавица!"  It works for me.



In fact, the word "Алло" is used in phone conversations  only. It means something like "Yes?... listening!" 
   In a personal converstion it sounds kinda unpolite. In that case it means kinda: "Hey, you!!!"


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## Grefsen

Ptak said:


> But it doesn't mean "Hello, beautiful..."
> And it doesn't compliment her on how beautiful she is.
> My vote goes for "Privet, prekrasnaya...".



 I’ve been using "Privet, prekrasnaya..." in most of my emails and SMSs to my two very beautiful Russian friends for several weeks now and have received very positive feedback especially in the beginning.   I’m wondering now if I need to be a bit careful about using this word too much or is it not possible to say  “prekrasnaya” too often to a Russian woman.


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## Setwale_Charm

I would however, be quite circumspect about using such forms of address. That really depends on how much of a friend she is and what kind of a friend. Generally, such phrases tend to sound rather frivolous if not vulgar in certain circumstances.


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## Q-cumber

Grefsen said:


> I’ve been using "Privet, prekrasnaya..." in most of my emails and SMSs to my two very beautiful Russian friends for several weeks now and have received very positive feedback especially in the beginning.



I suggest that your personal qualities caused the positive feedback, and not the word "prekrasnaya".  
1. "prekrasnaya" is an adjective, not a noun. It shall be used in a pair with a noun...well, perhars this is not an absolute rule, but in the most cases it is true.
2. The word itself is somewhat outdated in modern Russian.  It sill is widely used, yet in such expressions as "прекрасная погода" ("Fine (excellent) weather "), "прекрасная возможность" ("a fine opportunity "), "прекрасная работа" ("an excellent work") and so on.
3.  "prekrasnaya" is very seldom used in an address. It might be a part of some fixed expression:  "Привет, о прекрасная незнакомка!" (Privet, o prekrasnaya neznakomka!) "Hello, o beautiful stranger!" <female only>  Such a phrase always suggests a bit of irony and might be used in order to cheer up an unfamiliar girl.
4. In any case, I advice you against using the word more than once per person, if you know what in mean.  Otherwise, she might get bored soon.


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## rara20

hi everyone! reading this, i was just wondering what krasavitsa (alone) means if you are seeing the person who is saying it? i.e. what is the difference between what a "player" says, and what a guy who is serious about you says? if anyone's still there and gets back to me that would be great  i speak quite good russian and i look up what the affectionate words mean, but i don't have any cultural context, how it is perceived by russian people?


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## slavic_one

Am not a native speaker, but would also go without a name.



			
				tspier2 said:
			
		

> Ты знаеш...ты такая красивая сегодня.



But you can say that to someone if you see the person, not with sms 



rara20 said:


> hi everyone! reading this, i was just wondering what krasavitsa (alone) means if you are seeing the person who is saying it? i.e. what is the difference between what a "player" says, and what a guy who is serious about you says? if anyone's still there and gets back to me that would be great  i speak quite good russian and i look up what the affectionate words mean, but i don't have any cultural context, how it is perceived by russian people?



"красавица" means "a beauty".


And what about *хорошенкая*?


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## Pyccak

If you are good friends than the correct translation of: "Hello beautiful" is "Привет красавица."


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