unschön

Unschön is a German adjective that means not schön (not beautiful). It signals a lack of aesthetic appeal and is typically used to describe appearances, events, or conduct. Compared with hässlich, unschön often denotes a milder, more tactful or restrained negative judgment, capable of conveying awkwardness, displeasure, or disapproval without strong moral condemnation.

Etymology and form: Unschön is formed by adding the negation prefix un- to schön. The standard spelling includes the umlaut on o, yielding unschön; in ASCII texts it can appear as unschoen. The adjective inflects like other adjectives (for example, unschöner for the comparative and am unschönsten for the superlative). It can be used attributively or predicatively: eine unschöne Szene, Das ist unschön.

Usage: Unschön is common in spoken German and in writing that aims for a restrained tone. It is versatile: describing a scene, a situation, or behavior as unpleasant or awkward, without resorting to harsher terms. Examples include eine unschöne Nachricht, eine unschöne Realität oder Es wäre unschön von ihm gewesen.

Register and nuance: The term sits between neutral and mildly negative. For stronger judgments one might choose hässlich or unangenehm, and for more formal contexts unästhetisch or misslich. Unschön remains useful when a speaker wants to emphasize dislike or discomfort without extreme labeling.

See also: Schönheit, Schön, Hässlichkeit, Unästhetisch.