Lesson 27
Welcome to another lesson in the Advanced Situational Expressions series. Throughout this series, we will take a look at common situations and some of the advanced expressions you can use in each of them. In this lesson, we will introduce various expressions you can use when you want to make compliments about or to someone.
1. 우와, 이거 어떻게 하셨어요?
= Wow. How did you do this?
2. 어떻게 이렇게 하셨어요?
= How did you do it like this?
= How did you do that?
= How were you able to do such a difficult thing?
3. (정말) 잘 하신 거예요.
= You have done a good thing.
= You have made the right choice.
= It is a good thing you did that.
* You could simply say, “(정말) 잘 하셨어요” and in 반말, “(정말) 잘 했어.”
4. 정말 잘하시네요.
= You are really good at it.
* You can say it more specifically by adding WHAT they are good at in the beginning, such as, “수영 정말 잘하시네요 (= You are really good at swimming)”, “요리 정말 잘하시네요 (= You are really good at cooking)”, “노래 정말 잘하시네요 (= You are really good at singing)”, etc.
5. 어떻게 그렇게 OO을/를 잘하세요?
= How are you so good at OO?
6. 정말 대단하신 것 같아요.
= I think you are amazing.
= You are really inspiring.
* 대단하다 can be translated into many things in English: amazing, awesome, inspiring, impressive.
** You could put #5 and #6 together, such as, “어떻게 그렇게 수영을 잘하세요? 정말 대단하신 것 같아요.”
7. 오늘 패션 너무 멋져요.
= Your fashion looks awesome today.
8. 오늘 옷이 너무 예뻐요.
= I really like your outfit today.
= Your outfit looks very beautiful today.
9. 10년은 더 젊어 보이세요.
= You look at least 10 years younger.
* This is a good phrase for those who are over middle age because younger people tend to use another word to say “to look younger”, which is 어려 보이다.
10. 다혜 씨, 갈수록 실력이 느는 것 같아요.
= Dahye, I think you are becoming better and better at it.
= Dahye, I think you are becoming better at it day by day.
11. 저도 OO 씨처럼 OO을/를 잘했으면 좋겠어요.
= I wish I were good at OO like you.
= I wish I could do OO as well as you do.
12. 너무 부러워요.
= I am so jealous.
13. OO 잘하신다고 이야기 많이 들었어요.
= I have frequently heard that you are good at OO.
= Many people have told me that you are good at OO.
14. 도대체* 못하는 게 뭐예요?
= Is there anything you cannot do?
* 도대체 = how on earth; what on earth