ganz schön pretty

You're probably very familiar with the German adjective schön. It's one of the most commonly used words in the German language, as well as one of the first words you encounter when learning to speak German. The crowd-sourced online dictionary dict.cc lists up to 20 possible English translations for schön, although it is usually translated into English as "nice," "beautiful," or "pretty," depending upon the context.

Es gibt viele schöne Lindenalleen in Deutschland.

There are many beautiful linden avenues in Germany.

Caption 2, Deutsch mit Eylin - Bäume

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Es ist ein sehr schönes Land und die Hauptstadt heißt Bern.

It is a very beautiful country, and the capital is called Bern.

Captions 14-15, Deutsch mit Eylin - Denk schnell!

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You are probably also familiar with schön as an adverb directly modifying a verb. In the first case below, schön ("beautiful") modifies aussehen ("looks"), and in the second case, schön ("beautiful") modifies sich machen ("makes herself"):

Lavendel sieht schön aus und duftet natürlich sehr gut.

Lavender looks beautiful and, of course, smells very good.

Caption 25, Deutsch mit Eylin - Kräuter aus meinem Garten

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Wenn Lothar eine Party macht, macht Sabine sich extra schön.

When Lothar has a party, Sabine makes herself extra beautiful.

Captions 4-5, Deutsch mit Eylin - Machen vs. tun

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You may be a bit less familiar, however, with schön as an adverb modifying another adverb, as these are not usually translated literally into English:

Allerdings sind die oft ganz schön teuer.

However, they are often pretty expensive.

Caption 56, Deutsch mit Eylin - Erkältungszeit

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Puh, das war ganz schön streng, fand ich.

Phew, that was really pretty strict, I thought.

Caption 9, Deutsch mit Eylin - Ernährungsformen

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The above construction, ganz schön... followed by an adverb, is common in German. If you translated it literally word for word, you would wind up with something clumsy like "very prettily strict," which doesn't really work. Since the adjective schön is sometimes translated as as "pretty," in the sense of "beautiful," it is convenient to translate the adverb schön as "pretty" too. But while "pretty" and "beautiful" are largely interchangeable when using them as adjectives, the adverb "pretty" has different connotations than the adverb "beautifully." And there is another potential problem with translating the phrase ganz schön as "pretty": In German, the adverbial phrase ganz schön is a strengthening modifier, meaning it makes whatever it is modifying stronger, the equivalent of "quite" or "really quite." Note that the second example above emphasizes ganz schön as a strengthening modifier by translating it as "really pretty."

As a colleague of mine aptly pointed out, ganz schön also "often reflects that there's a bit of surprise or unexpectedness (on someone's behalf, not necessarily the speaker) regarding the extent something is the way it is."
 

In English, the adverb "pretty" is either a strengthening or a weakening modifier, depending upon the context and the way in which it is spoken. If spoken with confidence and the emphasis on the main adverb, it strengthens the main adverb. If spoken with doubt, with the emphasis on "pretty," it weakens the main adverb:

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("Very good")

How was your tennis match today?
Pretty good. ("fairly good," "okay")

If the text above were printed without the emphasis shown in bold print, with no other context to tell if the person was pleased or not so pleased with the tennis match, you would not be able to say with certainty whether they thought the match went really well or was slightly disappointing. The adverb "pretty" is pretty—no, very—ambiguous. The German adverb ziemlich is similar to the English adverb "pretty," in that it can be either a strengthening or weakening modifier, depending upon the context.

If you are ever translating the adverbial phrase ganz schön to English, it may be generally better to use an English adverb that is unequivocally a strengthening modifier, such as "really," or "quite." There is a certain beauty in the parallel of translating ganz schön into the English adverb "pretty," but you should be certain in that case that it is very clear to potential readers that "pretty" is meant as a strengthening modifier. If the context is ambiguous, using "pretty" can lead to an ambiguous translation!

The same applies vice-versa, should you ever be translating English to German: if the English text is "pretty sure" (in the sense of "somewhat unsure"), then you do not want to translate that to ganz schön sicher, because this translates back to "very sure."

Further Learning
How would you translate Sie ist ganz schön schön—as "She is pretty pretty"? Translating can sometimes be a tricky process: equivalent words in different languages often have subtly different cultural contexts and meanings. Go to Yabla German and search for the adverbial phrase ganz schön to learn different ways that it can be translated according to the different contexts, including into the English adverb "pretty."