In Japanese there are many different ways to express likeness or similarity depending on appearance, behavior, or outcome. When learning these expressions for the first time, it is difficult to understand what the differences are between them because they all translate to the same thing in English. This lesson is designed to study the differences between these expressions so that you can start to get a sense of which is appropriate for what you want to say.
We've already briefly gone over 「よう」 and learned that 「よう」 means an appearance or manner. We can use this definition to say that something has an appearance or manner of a certain state. This word can be used in many ways to express similarity. The simplest example is by directly modifying the subordinate clause. When the sentence ends in 「よう」, you must explicitly express the state of being by adding 「だ」, 「です」, or 「でございます」.
When directly modifying nouns or na-adjectives, you must use the 「の」 particle for nouns or attach 「な」 to na-adjectives.
Notice that example 1 does not say that the person looks like a student. Rather, the explicit state of being states that the person appears to be a student. On a side note, you can't say 「おいしいようだ」 to say that something looks tasty. This is like saying, "This dish apparently is tasty," which can actually be kind of rude.
You can also use it as a na-adjective to describe something that appears to be something else.
Finally, we can attach the target particle to say things like, "I heard it like that" or "I said it like...".
Another way to express similarity which is considered more casual is by using 「みたい」. Do not confuse this with the 「たい」 conjugation of 「見る」. The main difference is that this 「みたい」 can be attached directly to nouns, adjectives, and verbs just like particles which i-adjectives like 「～たい」 obviously can't do.
| Positive | Negative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | 犬みたい | Looks like a dog | 犬じゃないみたい | Doesn't look like a dog |
| Past | 犬だったみたい | Looked like a dog | 犬じゃなかったみたい | Didn't look like a dog |
The implied meaning here is the person wearing the uniform is not really a student because he/she only looks like a student. This is different from example 3 from the previous 「よう」 section which implied that the person appears to be (but might not be) a student. Again, we also can't say 「おいしいみたい」 to say that something looks tasty because it implies that, in actuality, the food might not be so good. Similarly, you would never say 「かわいいみたい」 to say that something looks cute.
Don't forget that 「みたい」 does not conjugate like the 「～たい」 form or i-adjectives.
「みたい」 is a grammar used mostly for conversational Japanese. Do not use it in essays, articles, or anything that needs to sound authoritative. You can use 「よう」 instead in the following fashion.
The problem with English is that the expression, "seems like" has too many meanings. It can mean similarity in appearance, similarity in behavior or even that current evidence points to a likely outcome. We will now learn how to say the third meaning; how to indicate a likely outcome given the situation.
Just like the grammar we have learned so far in this lesson, we can use this grammar by simply attaching 「そう」 to the end of verbs, and adjectives. However, there are four important different cases. Actually, I just noticed this but the conjugation rules are exactly the same as the 「～すぎる」 grammar we learned in the last section. The only difference is that for the adjective 「いい」, you need to change it to 「よさ」 before attaching 「そう」 to create 「よさそう」.
For ru-verbs, remove the 「る」
For u-verbs, change the / u / vowel sound to an / i / vowel sound
In the next example, the 「い」 has been dropped from 「おいしい」.
Exception: 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」.
Nothing needs to be done for na-adjectives.
The negative of 「来る」 is 「こない」 so when used with 「～そう」, it becomes 「こなさそう」.
Identical to the 「～すぎる」 grammar, i-adjectives that are derived from the negative 「～ない」
like 「もったいない」 or 「情けない」 also follow this rule as well (which would be 「もったいなさそう」 and 「情けなさそう」 in this case).
There are other grammar we have already covered that can be used to indicate that something is likely to be something else.
Be careful never to use 「かわいい」 with this grammar. 「かわいそう」 is a completely different word used when you feel sorry for something or someone. 「かわいい」 means, "to look cute" already so you never need to use any of the grammar in this lesson to say something looks cute.
The reason that there are so many annoying rules to using 「～そう」 is to distinguish it from this next grammar we will learn. This is a useful grammar for talking about things you heard that doesn't necessary have anything to do with how you yourself, think or feel. Unlike the last grammar we learned, you can simply attach 「そうだ」 to verbs and i-adjectives. For na-adjectives and nouns, you must indicate the state of being by adding 「だ」 to the noun/na-adjective. Also, notice that 「そう」 itself must always end in 「だ」、「です」、or 「でございます」. These differences are what distinguishes this grammar from the one we learned in the last section. There are no tenses for this grammar.
Don't forget to add 「だ」 for nouns or na-adjectives.
When starting the sentence with this grammar, you also need to add 「だ」 just like you do with 「だから」
Ａ：今日、田中さんはこないの？
A: Is Tanaka-san not coming today?
Ｂ：だそうです。
B: So I hear.
「らしい」 can be directly attached to nouns, adjectives, or verbs to show that things appear to be a certain way due to what you've heard. This is different from 「～そうだ」because 「～そうだ」 indicates something you heard about specifically while 「らしい」 means things seem to be a certain way based on some things you heard about the subject. 「らしい」 conjugates like a normal i-adjective.
Ａ：今日、田中さんはこないの？
A: Is Tanaka-san not coming today?
Ｂ：こないらしい。
B: Seems like it (based on what I heard).
Ａ：あの人は何なの？
A: What is that person over there?
Ｂ：美由紀さんの友達らしいですよ。
B: Seems to be Miyuki-san's friend (based on what I heard).
Another way to use 「らしい」 is to indicate that a person seems to be a certain thing due to his behavior.
A really casual way to express similarity is to attach 「っぽい」 to the word that reflects the resemblance. Because this is a very casual expression, you can use it as a casual version for all the different types of expression for similarity covered above.
「 っぽい」 conjugates just like an i-adjective, as seen by example 3 below.