awfully pretty = wahnsinnig hübsch, unglaublich schön
“She’s AWFULLY PRETTY, don’t you think? The most striking person in the room!“
BBC World Service
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“They’re AWFULLY PRETTY, but the crystalline waters off Australia’s eastern shore are teeming with some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth.”
New York Times
awfully
adverb
- very, extremely (used informally as an intensifier) – “That’s awfully kind of you”
- very badly or unpleasantly – “The band played awfully”
The Oxford Dictionary
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ORIGIN
Originally, “awful” had the meaning of 'being awe-inspiring’, as well as 'commanding profound respect or reverential fear’.
Later it came to mean ‘terrible, dreadful, appalling’, the earliest records of this use dates back to at least 1000 AD.
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SYNONYMS for the intensifier ‘awfully’:
AWFULLY, decidedly, desperately, devilishly, dreadfully, eminently, ever so, exceedingly, exceptionally, extraordinarily, extremely, fearfully, frightfully, hellishly, immensely, jolly, madly, majorly, mega, mighty, most, mucho, oh-so, particularly, positively, profoundly, really, remarkably, right, seriously, so, terribly, terrifically, thoroughly, tremendously, ultra, uncommonly, very
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OXYMORONS
Phrases which seem to contradict themselves are called “oxymorons”. On closer inspection, we notice that an apparent contradiction is caused by a word with two meanings. Here are some common examples:
deafening silence, act naturally, resident alien, good grief, almost exactly, AWFULLY PRETTY, jumbo shrimp, small crowd, sweet sorrow, clearly confused, only choice, peace force, plastic glasses, tight slacks, pretty ugly, working vacation, found missing, same difference, alone together, silent scream, virtual reality, unbiased opinion, Hells Angels, open secret, conspicuous absence, idiot savant, minor miracle, old news, poor health, random order, sad smile, steel wool, terribly good
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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:
“You must visit the Alps when you visit Bavaria, they’re AWFULLY PRETTY.”
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Paul Smith