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Today I would like to talk about the description of a person's appearance in the Russian language. As you probably know, adjectives play important role in the description of anything or anybody. Thus, describing something, we use not only colours but also different notional adjectives, e.g.:
Сложная постройка [slozhnaya pastrojka] - a complex building
Красивая архитектура [krasivaya arkhitektura] - beautiful architecture
Высокий потолок [vysokij patalok] - a high ceiling
Eyes
We also use adjectives to describe appearance, for example, to note what colour have person's eyes, hair and skin, we can use following adjectives:
Голубые [galubye] - blue
У нее голубые глаза [u niyo galubye glaza] - She has blue eyes.
However, you should remember, more often we use following words to describe eye colours in Russian:
Голубоглазая девочка [galubaglazaya defchonka] - A blue-eyed girl - it means, she has blue eyes.
Кареглазый [kariglazy] - a brown-eyed
It is very interesting adjective which is used when we want to emphasize that a person has eyes of brown colour, but in Russian we usually do not say "коричневые глаза" (brown eyes) – this sentence is correct by its meaning, but it sounds wrong – that is why we say "карие глаза" [kariye glaza].
Зеленоглазый [zilinaglazy] - a green-eyed (describing colour)
To describe green eyes, we usually say:
Зеленоглазая девочка была грустной, у нее был большой бант на голове, под цвет ее глаз.
[Zilinaglazaya devushka byla grusnaj, u nijo byl bal'shoj bant na galave, pad tsvet ijo glazam]
A green-eyed girl was sad, she had a big bow with the same colour as her eyes.
Черноглазый [chirnaglazy] - a black-eyed
We use this adjective to explain that a possessor has black eyes:
Черноглазый пес стоял на дороге [chirnaglazy pyos stayal na daroge] - A black-eyed dog was standing on the road.
Hair
To describe person with red hair, we use the following adjective:
Рыжеволосый [rizhivalosy] - red/ginger hair
Рыжеволосый малыш похож на солнце [rizhivalosy malysh pakhozh na sontse] - A redheaded baby boy is like sun.
We also use the following words to describe colours of hair:
Она блондинка [ana blandinka] - She is blonde
- it means, she has fair, for example platinum hair.
Он натуральный брюнет [on natural'nyj bryuneht] - He is a natural brunette
- it means, he has black hair since birth
Skin
Sometimes we meet people – albino who have light complexion, light-colored eyes, fair or actually white hair. To describe such appearance, it is not enough to say that this person is a fair-haired man. To emphasize such appearance, one can describe it with following adjectives:
Белоснежная (кожа) [bilasnezhnaya kozha] - snow-white skin or hair
У нее были красивые, длинные белоснежные волосы [u niyo byli krasivye dlinye bilasnezhnye volasy] - She had beautiful long snow-white hair
To describe skin type and its complexion, one can use such adjectives as:
- Смуглая (кожа) [smuglaya kozha] - olive skin
- Светлая (кожа) [svetlaya kozha] - light/ fair skin
- Загорелая (кожа) [zagarelaya kozha] - tanned skin
- Чёрная (кожа) [chyornaya kozha] - black skin
- Бледная (кожа) [blednaya kozha] - pale skin
- Светло-жёлтая (кожа) [svetla- zhyoltaya kozha] - yellow skin
