そう Look like, Appear, Seem, Have a feeling that

Most Recent Replies (34 in total)

• 

  Pushindawood

  look like・appear, seem・have a feeling that

  Structure
  ・Verb[stem] + そう・Optional だ
  ・Verb[ない] + [ さ ] そう・Optional だ
  ・いAdj[い] + そう・Optional だ*
  ・なAdj + そう・Optional だ

  *いい→よい + さそう・Optional だ
  (よさそう )

  View on Bunpro

• 

  seanblue

  先生の仕事は難しそうです。

  I only had to input そう, but since 難しい is already in its stem form, it kind of gives away the answer. I think you should require the adjective/verb and conjugation (if needed) to be part of the answer for all of these questions.

• 

  mrnoone

  It will be done within 24 hours

  ---

  Funny thing, I have added it to the to-do list yesterday hahaha

• 

  mrnoone

  The answers have been changed

• 

  goma14

  I’m confused with how to handle negatives with this grammar point. The rules are stated as:
  Verb ない => _なそう
  い-Adjective くない => _くなさそう

  However, there’s an example that uses さ:

  「仲直り出来 そう ですか。」「いいえ、出来 なさそう です。」

  And one that doesn’t:

  あなたの小さい車でもこの駐車場に入はいらなそう です。

  Why would you use さ in the first example with できない?

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey

  In theory:
  なさそう should be used with the negative form of adjectives and with the negative form of ある (to exist) - ない。
  なそう should be used with a negative form of verbs and with adjectives ending with ない (like あぶない - dangerous)

  In practice:
  Native Japanese use なさそう with verbs quite often, so often that it might be considered proper.

  We wrote “できなさそう” example so that users would know that this form is also sometimes used.
  I have added a short explanation under that example

• 

  goma14

  Thank you!

• 

  xBl4ck

  I was really confused when this showed up as my second review for the grammar point
• 

  mrnoone

  Hey

  As you suggested, we changed it to [飲みやすい]!

  Thank you a lot for the feedback!

• 

  chonzy

  Hey

  Just my two cents here: I think one of the most importat thing about this grammar point is the difference when it comes to いい… and since I don’t see any examples nor it being mentioned on the summary I thought I should mention it.

  From Tae Kim’s:

  (…)

  The only exception to this rule is the adjective 「いい」. When using this grammar with 「いい」, you must first change it to 「よさ」.

  これも結構 よさそう だけど、やっぱり高いよね。

• 

  Pushindawood

  @chonzy Thank you for drawing this to our attention! I have updated the structure for this grammar point. We will need to write a new sentence (or two) to incorporate this exception into Bunpro. Cheers!

• 

  deltacat3

  I read somewhere that cautioned a few uses of [adjective]-そう construction, as it can sometimes express something one wouldn’t expect.

  Such as:
  可愛そう “cute-looking” (which can imply being pitiable)
  偉そう “important-looking” (which may imply appearing self important or arrogant)

  Are these true? Are there anymore combinations to be wary of?
  And most importantly, how do I say someones baby looks かわいい！？(´・ω・｀)

• 

  Pushindawood

  @deltacat3

  This is true, but in a very limited scope (you only need to memorize a few instances of this happening). かわいそう is more often written as 可哀相 or 可哀想, while 可愛い is usually reserved for expressing that something is cute, so they shouldn’t be too difficult to tell apart. When attached to adjectives, そう expresses that something “appears” or “seems like” something. For example, 痛い→痛そう→"Looks painful." This expression can only be uttered by an observer, because they do not actually feel any pain, they can only express how the situation appears to them. Because of this, かわいそう is not used to express that something is “cute-looking” since the observer can make that judgement by themself. The object, person, ...

• 

  deltacat3

  You are fantastic @Pushindawood! Thank you for explaining the nuance so well!

• 

  skybison

  (If this is the wrong place to ask this please let me know! I’m new to posting.)

  I’m struggling with the difference betwen みたい - “like, similar to, resembling” and そう - "look like, appear, seem, have a feeling ". These almost seem like synonyms, and I keep conflating them in the grammer (both in N4:2)

  Maybe そう is preceeded by adjectives and verbs, and みたい is preceeded by nouns and verbs? If so, how do I know which one to choose when preceeded by a verb? Thanks in advance!!

• 

  mrnoone

  @skybison
  Hey

  I think that reading this might help:
  

• 

  skybison

  Wow, that was an awesome in-depth answer mrnoone, thank you! That makes way more sense, yay : )

• 

  Superpnut

  Have a question about one of the questions I got.

  雪が____です. [降る]

  Correct answer is 降りそう。

  I initially put in 降るそう。

  Bunpro gives me the hint “This means I heard that…”
  Can someone explain how る changes the meaning to heard?
  Because the grammar point itself says that “そうだ” means I heard that

• 

  nekoyama

  It just does. I don’t think there’s a particular reason, but this is how it’s used.

  If そう is preceded by a phrase in plain form it expresses hearsay. The note about hearsay in the grammar point has a link to a separate grammar point for this use.

  If it’s preceded by a verb or adjective stem, the result is an adjective that expresses “seems like” the preceding word. (And accordingly, can’t be used with visually obvious qualities.)

  Since the translation for that sentence is “It looks like…”, it must be looking for the second case.

• 

  Superpnut

  fair enough I can accept it just does