Translation for German "brav aussehen"

Question

Although related to English brave, the German word brav doesn't mean being courageous (any more). It rather has the sense of decency. "Sei brav", for instance, would be translated as "Be a good boy/girl".

I often struggle with a translation for this word. Now I'm trying to find a good translation for "brav aussehen". There's possibly not a single word as it depends on context what brav really conveys, but I'm wondering if there is a word, though.

Example 1:

Im Schlaf sieht er/sie so brav aus.
While asleep he/she looks so __.

This could be said about a child. It kinda implies that it's a naughty child, but while sleeping he/she appears like being a good boy/girl.

Example 2:

Sie mag nicht mehr so brav aussehen.
She doesn't want to look so __ any more.

This could be said about a woman that usually wears plain clothes and doesn't attract men, and who likes to change that.

The opposite, I guess, is in both cases naughty. But is there a word that would fit in both sentences above?

I tried finding German synonyms (lieb, anständig) and translating those. The results are "good", "nice", "sweet", "well-behaved", "decent", "proper". It seems to me that none of these words is a good translation.

For instance, while "good", generally speaking, is a good translation for brav (cf. good boy/girl), I guess it would differently be understood in both sentences above — good-looking or cute, that is.

Other words, like "well-behaved", do only fit in one context. Dictionaries (Oxford, M-W) define that as "behaving in a polite and correct way" and to my mind dressing in plain clothes is neither polite nor correct. And the Urban dictionary doesn't have a definition for well-behaved, so I don't think that any slang definition would apply here.

For the same reasons I dismiss the other words, too.

So, is there a word that would match both contexts? As a matter of course, the sentences do not need to be a verbatim translation; it's fine to rephrase them.

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Addendum: In German it's possible to say "brav wirken" in both sentences. Wirken means to appear, to seem. I tried to get to a solution by thinking about this alternative.

The translations then would be

While asleep she appears to be __.
She doesn't want to give the impression of being __ any more.

I feel like the only way to finish the first sentence is "to be a good boy/girl" and I tend to believe that the version with "to look" also requires that and, hence, I'm coming to the conclusion that there's no adjective that would fit the role.

Answer 1

I haven't come up with a single word (I don't think there is one), but I've come up with a construction that I think might work.

You said that wirken means to appear, to seem. One solution would be to use like.

Example 1:

While asleep he/she looks like an angel.

Example 2:

She doesn't want to look like a plain Jane.

What you put after like would obviously depend on what you’re trying to say and there isn't a single word that would cover all situations. But I think it’s a construction that would usually work well when needing to translate brav wirken as you've described it.

Answer 2

I think that "chaste" works for both examples based on two of the definitions on MWO:

: morally pure or decent : not sinful

: simple or plain

Answer 3

Translation isn't so much taking each word and converting it to an equivalent as it is finding a similar way of looking at the world and expressing that. This is the problem you're running into when asking for a single word. For example, how do you translate Schadenfreude into English? You can't. You need to explain what the word means. This is similar to trying to explain idioms with a single word.

Brav has many meanings and uses. For example,

Was für ein braver Hund.

means

What a good / obedient / loyal / faithful dog.

Brav has all of those meanings at that same time. Which one is "best"? Depends on the context.

"Jetzt guck doch mal hin, er sieht so brav aus, wenn er seine Hausaufgaben macht."

In this case, brav means well-behaved, obedient, good, dutiful. All of the things that you can associate with a boy doing his homework.

The common thread is well-behaved, but that might not be the speaker's meaning when talking about the dog or the little boy.

When trying to translate

Sie mag nicht mehr so brav aussehen

what is the context? Are you trying to say she doesn't want to be a goody two shoes (the opposite of Tussi in German?). As in

Ich will nicht mehr wie eine Tussi aussehen. Ich will, dass die Leute mich brav ansehen.
(I don't want people to think I'm a bad girl anymore, I want them to think I'm a "good" girl.)

Brav could be used sarcastically

Du siehst so brav aus mit deinem Minirock.

or

Naja, du siehst ja ganz brav aus mit diesem Outfit.
(You look really chaste / pure / innocent with that outfit.)

Of course, the English translation lacks the sarcasm that this has in German.

In a nutshell, you need to give more context, so we can find the right expression because brav means many things. That's why people are struggling to find the right word. "He looks like an angel" is apt, but you can say that in German ("Er sieht aus wie ein Engel.") and it doesn't quite mean brav.

On another note, I encourage you to read Umbeto Eco's book Mouse or Rat? which addresses this subject. (The problems of translation and how some things are a frustrating compromise.)