Is きれいそう a mistake?


In class we had some sentences with intentional mistakes to fix. One of them
was "きれいそうなsomething". The mistake was that you don't say that because if
you're looking at something, you can tell if it's きれい, so you wouldn't say it
"seems" きれい. Is it really something people would never say?




When you are directly seeing some beautiful thing in front of you, you cannot
say something like きれいそうな絵ですね. Saying ～そう always involves a speaker's
guess/speculation, so if you already know that it's beautiful or not, you
cannot use this expression.

An analogous case is おいしそう ("Looks yummy"). You can say this before eating
something, but saying おいしそう after actually eating it will sound very strange.
(Because it no longer _appears_ to be yummy but in fact is yummy or not).

For this very reason, as @Chocolate mentioned, in situations where you are not
directly seeing something, saying きれいそう is perfectly fine. When you have heard
how beautiful something is, you can safely say きれいそうですね ("Sounds beautiful.")




When you are directly seeing some beautiful thing in front of you, you cannot
say something like きれいそうな絵ですね. Saying ～そう always involves a speaker's
guess/speculation, so if you already know that it's beautiful or not, you
cannot use this expression.

An analogous case is おいしそう ("Looks yummy"). You can say this before eating
something, but saying おいしそう after actually eating it will sound very strange.
(Because it no longer _appears_ to be yummy but in fact is yummy or not).

For this very reason, as @Chocolate mentioned, in situations where you are not
directly seeing something, saying きれいそう is perfectly fine. When you have heard
how beautiful something is, you can safely say きれいそうですね ("Sounds beautiful.")

