みたいLike, Similar to, Resembling

In Japanese, there are many ways to express that something happens in a way that is 'like' something else, or 'resembles' something else. One of these ways is through the use of the な-Adjective, みたい. みたい can be used after any word that a な-Adjective would usually follow, to express that something is 'like (A)', or 'similar to (A)'.

In the above examples, we can see that みたい should always be followed by だ (or です) when it is at the end of a statement, however, this is frequently omitted.

みたい is also often used to describe another noun, but needs to be followed by な in these cases. In this type of sentence, it is just expressing that something is '(B), but resembles (A)'.

みたい is used most often in conversational situations, and is based on direct, reliable information. It is far less formal than its counterpart, ようだ.

Caution

Despite みたい meaning 'to resemble', and being based on (usually) visual stimulus, it should not be confused with 見(み)たい 'to want to see'. This is a common mistake that learners make, as みたい itself does not have a kanji form.

Fun Fact

みたいだ is originally an abbreviation of the more formal phrase を見たような. As a result of this, we can see that ようだ kept its formal meaning, while みたい became the casual equivalent.