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Please consider these two sentences (彼女 is a woman):
- 彼女はきれいです。
- 彼女は美しいです。
My sense is that #1 and #2 have the same meaning. Pronouncing きれい is easier, so I have just always said #1. And, I don't think that I've heard "美しい" spoken much, if ever.
What is the difference between #1 and #2?
Regardless of the difference, native speakers still don't say 美しい very much? きれい is what "sounds natural"?
Checking against a this corpus reveals that 「きれいです」 occurs a lot more often than 「美しいです」:
きれいです: 228 美しいです: 47
So, it seems that using 「きれい」occurs a lot more than 「美しい」 when being used in an XXX+です sentence.
From personal experience, I would almost always use 「きれい」 or 「かわいい」 when commenting on an adult female before 「美しい」.
This shouldn't be taken to mean that 「美しい」 is not a common word, or not commonly used. Referencing the same corpus:
きれい: 6792 美しい: 6364
Regarding the meaning though, if someone did say 「美しい」 (or 「美人」) I would consider her to be better looking than 「きれい」.
きれいis easier?