If you want to pay a compliment to the lucky lady in your life, a romantic phrase that never fails is Come sei bella! or Ma come sei bella!
The phrase is made up of the following components:
Ma (but) + come (how) sei (are) + bella (feminine form of bello meaning ‘beautiful’)!
The ma at the beginning is not mandatory but it does add extra emphasis.
The literal translation is But how beautiful you are but in English you are more likely to hear the phrases You’re so beautiful, You look beautiful or Look how beautiful you are.
Depending on the region, you may hear (Ma) quanto sei bella instead. Quanto means how much in Italian.
Carla, ma quanto sei bella stasera?!
Carla, you look so beautiful tonight!
A simpler way to pay a compliment to a woman is to say: (tu) sei bella (you are beautiful).
In Italian, there is the option of dropping the personal pronoun if the subject of the sentence is already clear from the context. For this reason, you’ll often hear the abbreviated Sei bella! rather than Tu sei bella! in conversation.
In order to say that a woman is very beautiful, you have two options: you can either place the adverb molto (very) in front of bella or you can add on the suffix -issima to bella to create the superlative.
Tu sei molto bella!
You are very beautiful!
Sei bellissima!
You are very beautiful!
Some related phrases you might want to try out include:
- Tu sei così bella! = You are so beautiful!
- Che bella che sei! = Look how beautiful you are!
- Tu sei la donna più bella del mondo! = You are the most beautiful woman in the world!
The masculine form of bella, which is bello, translates as handsome when used to describe the physical appearance of a man.
Tu sei bello!
You are handsome!
‘Come sei bella’ di Massimo Di Cataldo
Songwriter and musician Massimo Di Cataldo wrote this song in 1999. It was one of the most broadcasted singles on the radio.
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Ogni giorno che passa mi piaci di più
Soprattutto mi piace pensare che tu
Come me non ti senti mai schiava del tempo
E sai essere unica in ogni momento
E perché nei tuoi occhi rivedo me stesso
E mi sento già libero da ogni complesso
Perché a te non importa di avere difetti
Ma ti piaci lo stesso anche per questo sei bella
Come sei bella
Vedi come sei
Come sei bella
Nella luce sottile del sole al mattino
Rovistando con ordine nel tuo casino
Quando fissi il tuo viso riflesso allo specchio
E ti passi col dito sulle labbra il rossetto
Mi piace guardarti che non te ne accorgi
E spostare lo sguardo se poi tu mi guardi
Per non farti cadere nella timidezza
Quello strano timore di non essere bella
Nel sorriso rubato alla notte vedi come sei
Mentre muovi le mani distratte
vedi come sei bella
Come sei bella
Perché segui l’istinto più della ragione
Perché sai perdonare ogni mia distrazione
Perché sei naturale anche se stai tra la gente
Non ti lasci confondere dalle apparenze
Anche quando la vita ti rende insicura
Anche quando nel cuore c’è un po’ di paura
Anche quando ti perdi nella tua incertezza
Nella dolce amarezza vedi come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Forse non te lo aspettavi ma sai
Così bella io non ti ho vista mai
Fa che sarai quella che sei
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
Come sei bella
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
Each day that goes by I like you more
Above all I like to think that you
Like me you never feel like a slave of time
And you know how to be unique at every moment
And because in your eyes I see myself
And I already feel free from every complex
Because you don’t care about having flaws
But you like yourself anyway and you are beautiful for this reason too
How beautiful you are
See how you are
How beautiful you are
In the thin morning sunshine
Rummaging through your chaos with order
When you stare at your face reflected in the mirror
And you rub the lipstick on your lips with your finger
I like to look at you without you being aware
And move my eyes away if you then look at me
To not let you fall victim to shyness
That strange worry of not being beautiful
In the smile stolen from the night you see how you are
While you move your distracted hands
You see how beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
Because you follow instinct more than reason
Because you know how to forgive each of my distractions
Because you are natural even when you are among people
You don’t let yourself be confused by appearances
Even when life makes you insecure
Even when there is a bit of fear in the heart
Even when you lose yourself in your uncertainty
In the sweet bitterness you see how beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
Maybe you didn’t expect it but you know
I’ve never seen you so beautiful
It makes you what you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
How beautiful you are
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
