// TODO

Wow. What a disaster. Will have to go back and proofread / do more research on this.

We have not learned this at all. Does not seem too difficult tho. Actually, this is pretty hard. It’s not clicking with me, we will probably have to revisit these links. Looks like “seems like” (:)) has a ton of different meanings. So many implications too. IdK when to use which…

Sources:

Maggie Sensei “sou”

Maggie Sensei “mitai”

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese - Similarities

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese - Appearences

Nihongo Day By Day Blog

よう

We’ve seen よう in a few different meanings, but haven’t dived in to learn any of them yet. In this case it means appearence or manner.

Structure: (Direct Adjectival or Verbal or Nominal + no/na) + よう. You actually end up with a na-nominal afterwards with just the よう.

Use: Expressing that something appears to be in a certain state. Only says that it appears to be in this state, says nothing about whether it actually is. Thus, when describing something positively, like with おいしい, using this structure can sound rude, as it can be “it appears tasty (but I’m not saying it is…)”. In cases like that, just use the adjective itself, or with the tenative copula.

学生のようだ - “Appears to be a student”.

静かなようだ - “Seems like it’s quiet”

ここにないようです - “It doesn’t seem to be here.

彼は学生のような雰囲気ですね - “He has a student-like atmosphere” / “He has an atmosphere seeming like a student”

そう

We’ve seen そう in things like そうですか already. It’s used a quite different here. Although similar to that そう, everything you get here is a nominal compound.

Structure: Take Adjectival Root (drop i or just raw nominal) or Verbal Pre-masu (i-form), add そう. For Negatives, drop い, add さそう. You CANNOT use this form with plain nouns. Use tenative copula instead.

Exceptions: いい => いさそう. かわいい does not change (かわいそう means “poor thing”)

Usage: A -> “It looks like …” / “It seems like …”. V -> “It’s about to …” / “It looks like it’s going to …”. Kind of weird since you have to use the stem, so you can’t have any kind of tense there. More of a kind of GUESS.

このシャツ安そう - “This shirt looks cheap”

高そうでした - “It seemed expensive.

この試験が大変そう - “This test seems terrible”

彼は結婚していそうです - “He seems to be married”

金髪の女が好きそうだ - “You seem to like blond women”

優しそうな人だね - “(He) seems like a kind person”

友達の部屋がきれいじゃなさそうです - “My friends room seems like it is not clean”

もう十時だから、来なさそう - “Because it is already 10, it seems like it is not coming”

みたい

For na-adjective/nominals, use the rules above with そう. Remember for negatives, you can also use the rules above as well (except for plain nouns).

You can also use it with よう (by modifying it with の for nominals). みたい is more casual. Or you can just use the tenative copula.

Structure: Direct Predicate (or raw noun) + みたい. You actually end up with a na-nominal.

Use: “Looks like …” / “Seems like …” / “Like …” - Though there is a possible implied meaning that it is actually the opposite. Like with previously, if used with おいしい, it could imply that the food looks, but is not actually delicious.

もう売り切れみたい - “Seems like it is sold out already”

学生だったみたい - “It looked like a student”

今まで僕みたいなかわいい先生いた? - “Was there a cute teacher like me before?”

このパンは石みたいにかたい - “This bread is hard as a rock”

家族みたいなものです - “We are like a family”

らしい

Structure: Direct Style A/V or Raw N + らしい. You get an adjectival

Use: Indicates something seems to be in a certain state due to its behavior.

あの子は子供らしくない - “That child doesn’t seem like a child (based on how it is acting)”

約束時間に遅れるのは、彼らしくない - “It’s not like him to be late after the promised time”

男らしいと言った - “Said to act like a man”

っぽい

Structure: Direct Style A/V or Raw N + っぽい. You get an adjectival

Use: Very casual way of expresssing similarity.

全然女っぽくないね - “(I am) not womanly at all huh…”

食べたっぽいね - “Seems like they already ate”

Hearsay

Hearsay - information received from others that one cannot substantiate; a rumor

The issue is, all those past forms can be used to describe hearsay. I guess in the end, hearsay is less certain so maybe its a form of “seems like” or “appears to be” with the added info that its based on what you’ve heard.

Structure: same as before, except for そう, where you just attach the plain predicate, and it must end with a copula. Also, there is only present tense for this usage… If you want to be specific or can substantiate where you heard it from, you can use と 言う from class.

Use: To express things you have heard.

こないらしい - “Seems like he won’t come (based on what I’ve heard)”

明日だそうだ - “Seems to be tomorrow (from what I’ve heard)”

彼女の家はすごく大きいみたいです - “Her house seems really big (from what I’ve heard/seen)”

Differences

Similarity / Appearence

  • よう is a more formal/stiff version of みたい. Both are na-nominals. Possibly implication of appears to be X, not saying it is.
  • みたい has possible implication that it looks like X, but actually is not. Can be negative.
  • よう / みたい is used for things you describe a current state based on what you see
  • そう is more of an educated guess. Cannot be used with no-nominals.
  • そう is used for predicting a possibility by the current state
  • らしい is for implicated that it appears a certain way due to behavior. Also for the way things are suppose to be.
  • っぽい is just very casual similarity.

Hearsay

  • そう doesn’t have anything to do with how you feel or think. More certain that what you’ve said is true. More of a quote of what you’ve heard.
  • らしい is for things that are suppose to be in a certain way based on what you’ve heard. The hearing part is less specific/certain than そう. More gossipy. Only based on things you’ve heard, while others can be seen as well.
  • よう is just more formal/stiff than みたい. Seems less common than the others for hearsay




Vocab:

Here are some kanji from the lessons that I wasn’t really familiar with at this point:

  • none