Look at you, reading this lesson.

You're so 偉い（えらい）.

Do you know/remember this word? We saw it way back in Lesson #33. As I've said before, there's not really a good translation for this. We could say that (in this case) it means "I'm proud of you for studying," but without the looking-down feeling that comes with the phrase "proud of you."

Part of being an awesome language-learner is being an awesome communicator, yeah?

And part of being an awesome communicator is making people feel good when you talk to them.

Which is why I want to look at some simple ways to distribute props in Japanese.

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褒め言葉（ほめことば // words of praise）

The verb 褒める（ほめる）means "to praise" or "to admire." We can drop of the る, then add 言葉（ことば // word(s); language) to get the noun 褒め言葉（ほめことば // words of praise）.

If you jump on google and type, for example, いい褒め言葉（いい　ほめことば // "good + words of praise"）, then you'll be blessed with all kinds of articles written by Japanese people, for Japanese people, on how to compliment someone well.

This article has a list of 30 different 褒め言葉. Let's look at a handful of them (some of which I'll be changing to make more likely/natural in a casual conversation with friends)...

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Complimenting Someone's Looks, Clothes, etc.

The simplest way to compliment someone's looks or outfit is to just tell them they look cool or cute.

For a guy, I might say:

かっこいいね。
You look cool. // You're cool.

You can also just slip a noun in front of that to say that something in particular is cool. So if your friend is wearing cool shoes, you could say:

靴かっこいいね。
くつ　かっこいい　ね。
Cool shoes.
Literally: "shoes + cool + ね."

If you're talking to a girl, you'd be better off saying かわいい, "cute."

かわいいね。
You're (so) cute. // You look cute.

Again, we can slip nouns before that to specify cute things:

バッグかわいいね。
Cute bag. // Cute purse.
Literally: "bag + cute + ね."

If you want to compliment someone's style or fashion sense in general, then you might say...

センスいいね。
You have good (fashion) sense.
Literally: "sense + good + ね."

This does not necessarily have to mean "fashion sense." If your friend is a musician for example, and she's showing you a new song she's putting together, you could say:

センスいいね。
You have a good sense for music. // You have good (musical) sense.
Literally: "sense + good + ね."

Pretty versatile, yeah?

Also, you can switch out いい, "good," and insert ある, "to have," and it means pretty much the same thing:

センスあるね
You have good (fashion) sense.

You can also use the word スタイル, "style," but I'd be careful with this one, because スタイル is talking about someone's 体形（たいけい）, their "(physical) figure." In other words, it's different than the English word "style" and more like the English word... uh... "Figure?" "Form?"

スタイルいいね。
You look good. // You have a nice figure.
Literally: "style + good + ね."

Similarly, if someone has nice-looking clothes, or a nice-looking outfit on, then you might say:

おしゃれだね
You look nice.
Literally: "smartly dressed / fancy + is + ね."
Note: The nuance of おしゃれ is that someone not only looks nice, but that they look well put together. The person being called おしゃれ is probably wearing nice/expensive clothes. You can also use this word when talking about places, like a "nice/fancy restaurant."

If you want to say that someone's clothes look good on them then you could say:

その服似合ってるね。
その　ふく　にあってる　ね。
Those clothes look good on you.
Literally: "those + clothes + are suiting + ね."

Although these sentences we've seen so far are always coming with a ね attached to the end, in some cases you could also say よ. Like this:

その服似合ってるよ。
その　ふく　にあってる　よ。
Those clothes look good on you.
Literally: "those + clothes + are suiting + よ."

HOWEVER, using よ makes it sound like the listener just asked you if their clothes look good on them, and you're reassuring them.

For an added level-up bonus, saying よね at the end sounds like you're asking someone to confirm that the clothes you are personally wearing look good:

この服似合ってるよね？
この　ふく　にあってる　よね？
These clothes look good on me, right?
Literally: "these + clothes + are suiting + よね."

We saw かわいい earlier, yeah? But usually I'd be more likely to tell Rei that she's 綺麗（きれい）, "pretty," than かわいい, "cute:"

綺麗だね。
きれい　だ　ね。
You're (so) pretty. // You look (so) pretty.
Literally: "pretty + is + ね."

So next time you're with friends, maybe try to lift them up a bit with some nice words? There's nothing quite like making someone smile.

Oh, and if someone compliments you, be sure to send them an ありがとう, "Thank you."