“To look good” or “to have a good appearance”: what popular mistake do Ukrainians make in these phrases?

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When you want to express admiration for another person or compliment them, the first thing that comes to mind is their appearance. And we say: “you look good” or “you have a good look.” And one of these phrases is incorrect.

According to the editor, the phrase “you look good” is a mistake and linguists call it a ridiculous construction.

“A cow looks from behind a fence, but a person has a face.” This statement by one of my readers could start and end the post, but I will supplement it with Professor Ponomarev’s arguments. Instead of “you look good,” you should really write “you look good,” explains Olga Vasilyeva.

She noted that some people want to prove the regularity of using the word “to look” in the meaning of the Russian “выглядеть,” giving examples from Polish, Belarusian, English, and other languages.

But in Boris Grinchenko’s dictionary, which is the main measure of the Ukrainianness of specific Ukrainian words, the verb “to look” in the meaning of “to have a good look” is absent.

The editor also gave examples where she pointed out the errors:

• The bride looked charmingly – The bride had a charming look
• The situation looks strange – The situation seems strange
• Baked apples, drizzled with honey, look appetizing – Baked apples, drizzled with honey, look appetizing

“The main meaning of the verb “to look” is to look somewhere, through something, to peer. We speak and write correctly,” the philologist emphasized.