Learn 6 easy ways to pay compliment in English a make the world a happier place!
We’ll show you lots of compliment examples and talk about which compliments mean most to us. (They have to be genuine and can’t be manipulative!)
We’ll also show you six easy grammar structures for compliments:
look/be + adjective
love/like + noun
Good job/work
nice + noun
What + adjective + noun
good at + noun, good at + gerund
Click here to learn how we might respond to compliments differently in the US and UK.
Click here to learn some more everyday English expressions.
6 ways to pay compliments in English
Hello everyone. I’m Vicki and I’m British.
And I’m Jay and I’m American.
And today we want to help you make the world a happier place.
We’re going to look at compliments and how we tell people what we like about them in English.
The grammar is pretty easy. You can learn the structures you need very fast.
And we’ll show you lots of examples.
So you can find some nice things to say to people you like.
Let’s start with some vocabulary. We can give a compliment or pay a compliment. It means the same thing. Pay and give collocate with the word compliment.
What does collocate mean?
It means we often use the words together. So we often say the verbs ‘pay’ and ‘give’ with the noun ‘compliment’. They’re common collocations.
OK. Let’s get cracking now and see some compliments in action.
Yes, we have a story for you. See how many compliments you can spot.
Oh let me help you.
Oh no, I can do it.
No, no, let me help. Oh this artwork looks great. It’s really beautiful. Did you do this?
Yes. I just need one copy.
Oh I can do that.
Ah. It’s jammed. You have to take the paper out at the back. Oh. It’s stuck. Where are you going? Help, help.
Help, oh, you’ve saved me! Thank you.
You’re welcome
Who are you?
I’m photocopier man.
Oh you’re so brave and so strong. Those are really big muscles!
Well, I don’t know about that.
Oh and you’re so handsome. I love your smile.
Well I’d better get going now. Bye.
Oh. Where did you go? You’ll never guess who was here.
Who?
Photocopier man.
You gave photocopier man lots of great compliments there.
Well, he was very cute!
Like me.
Let’s look at the grammar. What structures did we use?
Oh this artwork looks great. It’s really beautiful. Did you do this?
Yes.
Here’s a very common structure for giving compliments. We use the verb ‘look’ or the verb ‘be’ with an adjective. And we can add emphasis with ‘really’.
We often use the adjectives great, beautiful, pretty, nice and good. They are all very common.
But there are lots more like wonderful, cool, cute, clever. Compliments are about spreading love so be positive.
In the UK we often say brilliant and it means very clever. ‘That’s a brilliant idea.’ ‘You’re brilliant’.
In the US we often say awesome. ‘You’ve done a really awesome job’.
We say awesome in British English now too.
Yeah?
Mmm. We got it from the US.
OK, let’s look at another common structure now.
Oh and you’re so handsome. I love your smile.
Well, I’d better get going now. Bye.
Oh!
Again it’s simple. Just use the verb ‘like’ or ‘love’ and then say what you like or love. ‘I love your dog.’ ‘I like your hair.’ ‘I love your sense of humour.’
And again you can say ‘really’ to add emphasis. ‘I really love your smile’.
I really like your new glasses.
Thanks. You know there’s another structure that I use a lot. Well it’s a phrase really.
What’s that?
Good job! When someone does something well, I say ‘Good job’. Or ‘Great job’.
So for example, if they hit a golf ball into the hole.
Yes, good job. Or if you park the car in a small space.
Yeah.
We finished on time and on budget.
Well done everyone. Good job!
Yeah, nice work!
Nice is similar to good. We can say ‘Nice work!’ ‘Nice job!’
Or ‘Nice phone!’ ‘Nice computer! Nice – anything really.
And there’s another very simple structure like that. We say ‘what’!
What?
Yes!
Come in. Come in.
What a lovely apartment!
Thank you.
What a beautiful piano. It’s so pretty.
It’s a pretty colour, isn’t it?
So we just say ‘what’ and then the thing
‘What a lovely apartment!’
‘What a beautiful piano!’
‘What a great team we are!’
‘What a beautiful baby!’
So the grammar is very simple again.
Yes, I think forming compliments is pretty easy. Thinking of nice things to say is more difficult because you want to find things that matter to the other person and they have to be true.
What can we give compliments about?
There are lots of things, aren’t there? We can compliment people on how they look. Their clothes, their hair.
And their possessions. ‘What a great looking car.’ ‘What a nice yard.’
I’d say nice garden in British English. But what do you think are the nicest compliments to give to people?
What do I think?
Yeah.
Well, they’re probably not about appearance. How you look is how you look. And clothes and possessions – they’re just material things. Maybe the nicest compliments are about their achievements, about the things they do.
For example?
Well maybe they give a good presentation and you say ‘You did a really great job. or ‘You’re really good at giving speeches.’
Yeah or if they create something, like some artwork. Or their cooking. We often compliment people on a meal they’ve cooked.
This soup is delicious. Did you make it?
Yes, it’s a family recipe.
I love it!
Another nice compliment is when we can say something positive about someone’s character or personality, like, ‘You’re always so helpful’. Or ‘You’re very thoughtful’.
Or ‘You’re very imaginative’, or patient, or ‘You’re really well organized’.
You did a great job on this event Vicki.
Thank you!
You’re so well organized. It’s been a pleasure working with you.
You too!
But I organized this event!
Yes. I really love working with you too.
I like these compliments because they’re about skills. They’re saying ‘You’re good at your job’.
That’s another useful structure: ‘good at’. You’re really good at giving speeches.
Or you’re really good at English.
Notice what follows ‘good at’. It’s always a noun. If we want to use a verb, we have to add -ing to turn it into a gerund – a noun form of a verb.
So you’re really good at giving, -ing, – giving speeches.
Let’s have one more example.
OK.
You know you’re so good at making coffee Jay.
Thank you!
Could you make me another cup?
But that wasn’t really a compliment.
I know. I just wanted more coffee. But it illustrates the most important thing about giving compliments. They have to be true.
That’s right. If you lie, people might think you’re trying to manipulate them.
They might think you’re lying in order to get them to do what you want.
Compliments have to be truthful.
We’re making another video about how not to give compliments, because some compliments don’t work.
So make sure you subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss it.
And if you’ve enjoyed this video, please share it with a friend.
And see you all next week everyone. Bye.
Bye-bye.
Click here to learn how we might respond to compliments differently in the US and UK.
Click here to learn some more everyday English expressions.