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I want to say that a person is wonderful:

> 「素敵な人。」

Is there a more appropriate way to tell a person they are wonderful? This is
my entire sentence:

> 「あなたは素敵な人です。」

I want to use the term to say to a friend.
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2018-07-16T11:47:06.853
60153
2018-12-23T04:12:08.470
2018-12-23T04:12:08.470
18435
question
na-adjectives
Can I use 素敵 to describe a wonderful person?
yes, you can use 素敵(な) to describe a person as well as things and places, but
be careful.

You can use it to describe things and places in a way that could mean they
have a "charming" or "lovely" look and or feel:

**素敵な** 店ですね！

When describing people, depending on context, it MIGHT be understood that you
mean "wonderful", BUT in general, in regards to people, 素敵 is a description of
their appearance, not their personality.

Q:テニス部のキャプテンはどんな人ですか？

A: **素敵な** 人ですよ！

(in this Q&A, it's possible 素敵な人 could be understood to mean "wonderful",
depending on the context of the entire conversation, but from just this Q&A,
it will almost certainly be thought to mean "lovely/pretty")

あの子はすごく素敵ですよ！

That girl is so lovely!

If you want to complement a friend in a nice way, and you're not looking to
deepen the friendship into a romance, it's more appropriate to use words like

いい人、やさしい人、親切な人

"wonderful" is a concept that is not really used to describe people, in
Japanese. You can say 素晴らしい人 but it sounds very "over the top", and actually
seems to place you in a position of "judging" them rather than complementing
them, so I think it'd backfire on you.
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2018-07-16T12:26:27.990
60155
2018-07-16T14:00:33.413
2018-07-16T14:00:33.413
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answer