そうだ (伝聞)【そうだ（でんぶん）】

Attached to the plain form of a verb or adjective, そうだ reports information the speaker got from somewhere else – something they read, heard, or were told. It corresponds to "I hear that…", "they say…", or "apparently…"

Attaching to each word type

Because it takes the plain form, tense and negation are carried by the word before そうだ.

• Verb: ふる降る → 降るそうだ / 降ったそうだ / 降らないそうだ
• い-adjective: たかい高い → 高いそうだ / 高かったそうだ
• な-adjective: げんき元気 → 元気だそうだ
• Noun: いしゃ医者 → 医者だそうだ

Naming the source

The source is often stated up front with によると or によれば.

Not the same as appearance そうだ

This is the point learners most often get wrong. The two そうだ differ by what they attach to:

• Plain form + そうだ – hearsay: ふる降るそうだ "I hear it will rain"
• Stem + そうだ – appearance: ふり降りそうだ "It looks like it will rain"

So かのじょ彼女はつかれた疲れたそうです means "I heard she got tired," while かのじょ彼女はつかれてい疲れていそうです means "She looks tired." Hearsay そうだ also never becomes そうな or そうに.

Compared with らしい

らしい also reports second-hand information, but it leaves room for the speaker's own inference and sounds less committed about the source. そうだ presents the information as something definitely heard, so it is the more neutral choice when quoting a report directly.