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Basically I am looking for words in common usage which are roughly synonymous with English "cool", "wicked", "awesome", "sweet", and related positive slang adjectives.

I would also like to know how common these kind of words are in Chinese (because in English there are so many).

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    In Shenzhen I heard some Chinese speakers actually say "cool" in English. This doesn't answer the question, but I thought it was funny to hear :D
    – Coltin
    Commented Feb 18, 2012 at 2:14
  • When you hear someone saying "cool", they may be acutally saying "酷". And yeah, when "cool" means "awesome" or something like that, it is translated to 酷.
    – Dante WWWW
    Commented Feb 20, 2012 at 1:58
  • Could you give some example when you use "wicked" and "sweet"? No one answered these words yet and maybe because it's hard to translate directly.
    – Mengdi Gao
    Commented Mar 26, 2012 at 10:01
  • @MdGao Wicked means great, impressive, skillful, incredible, amazing. youtube.com/watch?v=ksHPZE1yJ94 Some people use it as an adjective ("His car is wicked fast!") I think that is more American than British though. "Sweet" means more like "top quality". Both are slang.
    – jsj
    Commented Mar 26, 2012 at 11:45

7 Answers 7

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  • 酷！= "Cool!", transliteration from English
  • 酷毙了！= "Cool to die for" (was a popular phrase in the 90s)
  • 牛！ = literally means bull, but here means "genius"; used to describe people only

他数学太牛了！He's so good at math!

这个杂技演员太牛了！The acrobat is so talented!

  • 太棒了！= literally "Too great!", or "Fantastic!"

爸妈下周带我们去海边。Mom and Dad will take us to the beach next week.

太棒了！Awesome!

  • 帅！= "Handsome!" ("帅翻了" is also a popular phrase used among teenage girls. I don't know how much adults understand/like this usage.)

  • 帅呆了！(was a popular phrase in the 90s)

周杰伦已经过气了，现在最火的是许嵩。你看了她新出的MV了吗？Jay Chou is passé. Xu Song is what everybody's been talking about lately. Have you seen the music video he just posted?

一个字，帅！(Literally:) I can only use one word to describe it - handsome!

  • 爽！= what you say when you are feeling refreshed and comfortable (after having some ice-creams on a hot summer day, taking public revenge on your long-time enemy

  • 爽死了！

  • 真好！= "Really/truly good!"

  • 真不错！= literally "really not bad"; "Really good!"
  • 厉害！= used to express admiration of someone's skill (If you want to use it in a sentence, remember to say "他很厉害/他特别厉害/他超级厉害"; "他厉害" is incorrect.)
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    Can you please provide explanation for all of those expressions? For example, meaning (I suppose they don't just mean "cool!"), when they are used, etc. As is, this answer is not very useful.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Feb 18, 2012 at 22:28
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    Someone added the translations but it can still be (greatly) improved.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Feb 19, 2012 at 20:09
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他很酷 (tā hěn kù) means "He is cool".

This is a transliteration of "cool" using the sounds found in the Chinese language. I'm sure there are other ways to say it, but that is the most direct that I know of.

他很帅 (tā hěn shuài) is closer to "He is handsome". This could also be used to say someone is "cool-looking", I believe.

棒 (bàng) means great, awesome, etc.

这个电影的音响效果很棒！ = This movie's sound effects are great!

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Try 牛逼 (niú bī).

It's almost the omnipotent slang-style compliment in Chinese, and the most frequently used.

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  • 牛逼（originally 牛B) is more close to awesome than cool. but still a great cool translation.
    – Mengdi Gao
    Commented Mar 26, 2012 at 9:52
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1：太好了/非常好 tài hǎo le/ fēi cháng hǎo E.g. nǐ de zhōng wén tài hǎo le ！ 你的中文太好了！ Your Chinese is awesome!

2：太棒了/ 非常棒 tài bàng le / fēi cháng bàng E.g. nǐ de zhōng wén fēi cháng bàng 你的中文非常棒! Your Chinese is awesome!

3：太厉害了/ 非常厉害 tài lì hài le / fēi cháng lì hài E.g. nǐ chàng gē tài lì hài le ! 你唱歌太厉害了!

nǐ chàng gē fēi cháng lì hài！ 你唱歌非常厉害！ Your singing is awesome!

4：太牛了/ 非常牛 tài niú le / fēi cháng niú   E.g. nǐ tài niú le 你太牛了！

nǐ fēi cháng niú o 你非常牛哦！ You are awesome !

5：太赞了/ 非常赞 tài zàn le / fēi cháng zàn

E.g. zhè gè jiàn zhù tài zàn le 这个建筑太赞了！

zhè gè jiàn zhù fēi cháng zàn
这个建筑非常赞！ This architecture is awesome!

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赞！ It means awesome. You could also use 真赞！ which has the same meaning.

And me and my friends often use 屌爆了, which mainly used among young people oral language and Internet discussions, the text representation is not standardized, someone write as 碉堡了, when we (me and my friends) use this word, we roughly mean "awesomeness explodes", though it has many other meanings. 屌 and 真屌 is also valid and used.

For "wicked" and "sweet", above words can be very suited sometimes, but not always, since "wicked" and "sweet" have so many meanings. "Wicked" is more close to 屌 and "sweet" is more close to 赞.

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Chinesier, loosely translated:

他风流倜傥！ He's cool!

他玉树临风. He's cool.

From Baidu:

风流倜傥:风流：有才学而不拘礼法；倜傥：卓异，洒脱不拘。形容人有才华而言行不受世俗礼节的拘束。

玉树临风: 形容人风度潇洒，秀美多姿。亦作“临风玉树”。

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"cool" 醋，不错 "wicked"没道德的，不良的 "awesome"太棒了 "sweet" 好，甜

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