ぎみ and っぽい

Table of Contents

ぎみ

Feels a little like (Negative thing)
ます Stem + ぎみ
Noun + 気味

(気味) ぎみ means “kinda feels like”. It is used to describe a slight feeling of something.
The feeling may be psychological or physical. 気味 is generally used for negative things.
In practice, this is only used with a handful of words. It also frequently pairs with words like 最近 (recently)

Common Combinations

風邪気味
Feels a little like a cold
疲れ気味
Feeling a little tired
上がり気味
Feels a little like they’re going up.
太り気味
Feels a little like I’m getting fatter

Examples

最近は風邪気味だ
It feels a little like I have a cold recently
今日は疲れ気味だ
I’m feeling a little tired today
最近値段が上がり気味だ
It feels a little like prices are increasing lately.
太り気味だったので、ランニングをした
I was feeling a little like I was getting fatter, so I ran.
風邪をひき気味なので。。
I’m feeling a little like I’m catching a cold so…

っぽい

~Like
ます stem + っぽい
Noun + っぽい

っぽい means “like”. It has 2 usages:

To express similarity to something it is not; and
To express an impression there being a lot of something

As if it were X

This pattern simply expresses similarity to something a noun is not.
It is similar to みたい and のような

Examples

男っぽい女
A man-like woman.
クモっぽい男
A spider-like man.

A lot of X

This pattern expresses what there appears to be a lot of, or be common in something.
This meaning is most similar to そうな

This っぽい tends to be used with emotion words and a few other specific words.
You’ll have to learn them, but the most common ones are underlined below.

If you are unsure:

For verbs, you should use そうな
For nouns you should use が多そうな or たくさんありそうな

Examples

忘れっぽい人
a forgetful person (A lot of forgetting)
あぶらっぽい料理
Fatty food
荒っぽい海
A very violent-like ocean
すいかはすごく水っぽい
Watermelon is very water-like.
飽きっぽい性格
A give-uppy pesonality.

Additional Resources

Edewakaru: っぽい and ぎみ (Japanese)