Appearances
This page explains ようだ、らしいだ、and みたいだ ; all of which modify sentences to mean “seems like” “looks like” or “appears that”. They are often confused by learners of Japanese.
ようだ
I think it looks like X
plain verb form/い Adjective +ようだ
な Adjective + なようだ
Noun + のようだ
よう is a な adjective that means “is like”. When used at the end of a sentence or clause with だ/です, it expresses your conclusion about something. It is based on firsthand information.
It is similar to と思う, but stresses that it is a conclusion based on some facts you know and not just a guess. It is important that it is your conclusion.
- これからジムに行くようだ – It looks like we’re going to go to the gym next.
- 今日は帰らないようだ – It doesn’t looks like we’re going to be able to go home today.
- 彼は一晩中働いたようだ – It looks like he worked all night. (came in and saw him)
- そのゲームは楽しいようだ – It looks like that game is fun (I saw someone having fun playing it)
らしいだ
Someone said X
plain verb form/Adjective/Noun* +らしい
らしいだ is similar to ようだ in that it describes a conclusion about a situation. However, while ようだ is something you concluded (educated guess), らしい is information you got from someone else. It is used to describe secondhand information.
- これからジムに行くらしい – Someone said we were going to the gym next.
- 彼は一晩中働いたらしい – Someone said he worked all night. (Someone else saw him and told you).
- そのゲームは楽しいらしい – Someone told me that game was fun.
- その人は男らしいです – I heard that person was a guy.*
*see also ~らしい
みたいだ
It seems like
plain verb form/Adjective/Noun* +らしい
みたい means “looks like”. it can be used in placed of both よう (first hand) and らしい (second hand) when describing situations. If you have to default to one of these, this is the one.
- そのゲームは面白いみたいだ – That game seems interesting
- 彼が一晩中働いたみたいだ – It seems like he worked all night.
See also そう