Structure
Noun + らしい。
Noun + らしく + Phrase
Noun + らしい + Noun
Details
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Standard
About らしい ②
In our first らしい lesson, we discussed the auxiliary verb use of らしい. In this lesson we will focus on the 形容詞の一部 (auxiliary adjective) usage. An auxiliary adjective is a type of adjective that must be attached to another word for it to have any meaning.
To use らしい in this way, it must be attached to the end of a noun, and will imply that something is 'typical of (A)', where (A) is the noun that comes before it. As this らしい behaves like an い-Adjective, it may also be conjugated to らしく, before a (B) phrase will explain more about 'what' is/was typical of (A).
The primary use of this らしい is to express that (A) has some feature or trait that is expected of itself. It can be used for people, 'studying all night is so typical of Tanaka', or it can be used for things like seasons 'this heat is so typical of the Japanese Summer'. Other common translations are 'to be befitting of (A)', or 'to be appropriate for (A)'.
However, it may also be used negatively, to show that something is (often surprisingly) 'uncharacteristic of (A)'.
Fun Fact
When the noun that appears in (A) and (B) are the same, it will imply that (A) is the 'prime example of (B)', or 'the most (A), (B)'.
- 今年の８月は夏らしい夏だね。August this year is the prime example of summer. (Literally, 'the most summery summer')
Synonyms
らしい ①
Seems like, Apparently, I heard
Not studied yet
っぽい
-ish, -like, Characteristic of, Typical of, Tendency to
Not studied yet
っぽい
-ish, -like, Characteristic of, Typical of, Tendency to
Not studied yet
みたいに・みたいな
Like, Similar to, Resembling
Not studied yet
みたいに・みたいな
Like, Similar to, Resembling
Not studied yet
Examples
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「もっと大人らしくしなさいよ！」
'Behave more like an adult!' (befitting of)
「やっと夏らしい日が来たよ！」
'At last, a day befitting of summer has come!'
「そんなことを言うのは、彼女らしい。」
'Saying something like that, (it is) typical of her.'
「カップルらしく映画を見に行こう！」
'Let's go to the movies like couples do!' (typical of)
「あなたの笑顔の愛らしさに気づいたばかりだわ。」
'I just noticed the loveliness of your smile.'
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らしい ② – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (11 in total)
nekoyama
I think it’s just a way to say “a bunch of words”. In linguistics, a phrase is a grammatical unit that can consist of multiple words. Not all phrases are valid here, but there isn’t really enough room to put a complete list. But it would be the same one as for い-adjectives in their く-form or for adverbs.
Among the example sentences, there is this one:
カップルらしく 映画を見に行こうI picked it because it’s fairly long compared to the other examples. The entire part after らしく is the “phrase”.
Superpnut
Thanks, I wasn’t sure what it meant. I kinda thought it meant what you were saying but I wasn’t sure. I guess I just never thought something like “going to the movies” was considered a phrase I just thought it was a sentence. But I get what they mean by phrase now thanks
Shadoobie
90% sure that’s a Futurama reference, which, while hilarious, is a bad example without the full quote:
“Yeah, well, I’m gonna go build my own theme park- with blackjack, and hookers! Actually, forget the park.”
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