after a verb's ます-stem or an adjective's stem gives your impression from what you see: "looks", "looks like it's going to". With an adjective it is how something looks; with a verb it is what looks about to happen. An い-adjective drops its い, and a な-adjective is used bare.
。
This cake looks delicious.
。
It looks like it's going to rain.
。
This string looks like it's about to snap.
Looks like, or I hear
A second そうだ, meaning "I hear", follows the plain form. The attachment form is all that separates them.
。
It looks like it's going to rain.
。
I hear it's going to rain.
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I hear this cake is delicious.
- × 雨が降るそうだ (for "it looks like rain") → 雨が降りそうだ
Not for what is plain to see
そうだ is a guess from the outside. A quality you can see directly, like a colour, size or someone's looks, is stated as it is. A noun does not take this そうだ at all; use or .
。
That person is beautiful.
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That person seems to be a student.
- × あの人はきれいそうだ → あの人はきれいだ
- × あの人は学生そうだ → あの人は学生のようだ
いい and ない
and
put さ before そうだ. This also covers ない at the end of a negative, as in
.
。
It looks like there isn't time.
Usage notes
These go beyond そうだ at the end of a sentence.
Before a noun or a verb
そうだ works like a な-adjective: before a noun, before a verb.
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That ramen looks delicious.
。
The children are playing happily.
Negatives
For an adjective, the usual negative is 〜くなさそうだ, "doesn't look". For a verb, or says something doesn't look like happening.
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This problem doesn't look difficult.
。
It doesn't look like the rain will stop.
Lingaku