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Taking a quick look at the Leo search results for cute, you'll find that there are a little over a dozen entries. I'm primarily asking about the application of the word towards people, but the cases regarding animals and objects are also of interest.

In English, we have a few words that you can consider as synonyms for cute, but all have slightly different shades of meaning which I'm finding difficult to put into words.

  • adorable

  • sweet

  • charming

All are independent of gender.

As an extension to this, what are some gender specific words that can be used to describe attractiveness? Are there any differences between words like "hübsch" and "schön"?

So to be clear, my question is - what are some accurate translations for the above words?

Edit: I'm getting answers for cute applied to humans, but nobody has addressed describing objects that one might call "cute". An example: [object] is so small, it's a cutie/it's cute.

While "cutie" is not so common, and not really said by men (because come on.... "cutie"?), calling objects "cute" certainly is common enough to warrant a translation.

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Astrum
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    possible duplicate of "Cute" in German. (Didn't vote to close, because gender-independence wasn't addressed there) – c.p. Mar 29 '14 at 00:23
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    There is no clear question in this text. – Phira Mar 29 '14 at 01:42
  • Well, perhaps if you are getting wrong answers, you might specify the English subleties that those adjectives represent. After all, this is German.LU, not English.LU. You are practically asking the expertise on English (not only proficiency). And I'm not sure all that fits into a single question. – c.p. Mar 29 '14 at 21:55
  • The answers so far have been fine, and I think my question about it's application to humans has been adequately answered, between the answers here and in the other question linked above. The only question that still stands is how these words would be used to describe inanimate objects. As far as I know, you might use an entirely different set of words. – Astrum Mar 29 '14 at 22:53

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If you read other synonym pages for hübsch (example), you'll find most of the synonymes being applicable to both genders. Nevertheless, it's an aspect of German (and Western Culture), that non-sexual attractiveness (cuteness) of males is much more seldomly described.

Only some of them, I would definitely use gender-specifically:

For Females

aufreizend, bestrickend, (betörend)

For males

stattlich, imposant

Be aware, that this is a highly personal question.

Toscho
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  • Are there any special caveats that apply to the female ones? – Astrum Mar 29 '14 at 21:42
  • The female-specific adjectives aufreizend, bestrickend (and betörend) imply an effect on the observer and connotate some intentions by the described person. – Toscho Apr 01 '14 at 12:08
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adorable,sweet,charming

Usually females employ these words a lot.

The only one currently employed according to my sensory input is süß. Which is a direct translation for sweet.

It is even being used for things where I don't necessarily agree that there would not be a better adjective to classify the object like. Yeah what?

Adorable = süß Sweet = süß Charming = süß

Especially with charming süß is not really congruent. Nonetheless it's whats mostly being uttered by the females I know. Maybe people with a larger active vocabulary would use more varied words. But süß is the go to word in that field. It expresses what is being felt by the person saying this. I'd guess it must feel like sugar or chocolate or ice cream.

Nonetheless the above was my subjective answer.

Objectivly http://www.openthesaurus.de/synonyme/süß has good synonyms if you don't just want to say süß all the time. And I quote:

allerliebst · goldig (ugs.) · herzig · niedlich · puppig · putzig (ugs.) · (ganz) reizend · schnuckelig (ugs.) · süß · zum Abknutschen (ugs.) · zum Anknabbern (ugs.) · zum Knuddeln

These are gender unspecific. You'd say "Das ist aber…" oder "Du bist aber…" oder "Der ist aber…" oder "Die ist aber…" weniger "Sie sind aber…" since Sie is formal.

Right now I cannot come up with any gender specific way that I'm actually aware of being used.

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