Guide to Using Sou (そう), Rashii (らしい), Mitai (みたい) and Poi (っぽい)

If you’re studying Japanese or living in Japan, you might hear words ending with sou そう, mitai みたい, rashii らしい and ppoiっぽい. Among the tricky suffixes, rashii, mitai and poi have confused our students more than once as they convey similar meanings. For example, your coworker might exclaim, “Osihisou (おいしそう)” when you opened your bento box at work. What did they mean?

Altogether, these suffixes describe how something appears to be. Think of them as a way to express, “seems like” or “looks like”. But while they all indicate your judgment based on what you have read, heard or been told, sou そう, mitai みたい, rashii らしい and ppoiっぽい have different nuances and distinctions.  

As a beginner Japanese learner, sou (そう) might be the first thing you learn. It is one of those phrases that can get you through many situations, even if you have limited command (in fact, it’s in our list of useful Japanese phrases. Of course, at the top of our survival Japanese list could sit the original adjective 美味しい(delicious).

The Japanese grammar points in this post are used to convey something that the speaker has varying levels of certainty about. Determining which one to use depends on how sure the speaker is, or how much information they have. 

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to say “seems like” in Japanese correctly!

How to Say “Looks like” in Japanese With Sou (そう)

Not to be mistaken with the そうです (sou desu) used to give affirmation to a statement said by your conversation partner — like “Ah, I see!” or “I understand”, this is sou (そう) used to make express “it looks like” or “it appears like” based on appearance.

We’ve brushed up the most common example of sou, which is “It looks delicious!” When you use sou (そう), you’re describing a perceived situation or making an educated guess. 

Let’s look at the example of oishisou. When you look at a bowl of ramen that is in front of you, you automatically make a conclusion as to what seems to be going on. Most of the time, this conclusion is taken from how something looks.

Examples:

このオレンジはとても美味しそうです。
Kono orenji wa totemo oishisou desu
This orange looks really delicious

この本、面白そうです。
Kono hon, omoshirosou desu
This book looks interesting. 

田中さんは先週風邪を引いていましたが、今日は元気そうです。
Tanaka san wa sennshuu kaze o hiite imashita ga, kyou wa genkisou desu
Ms Tanaka had a cold last week, but she looks fine today. 

今週は仕事が沢山ありましたがもうすぐ終わりそうです
Konshuu wa shigoto takusan arimashita ga mousugu owarisou desu
I had a lot of work this week, but it looks like it’s almost over. 

Grammar Pattern for Sou (そう) Form

To make the negative form of this Japanese grammar point, use なさそう.

Saying “Heard that” in Japanese Using Sou (そう)

While this is the same word as the previous sou (そう), its use is different and is actually a separate grammar point. This そう is used when expressing something the speaker has heard — a hearsay. In a sentence, you can translate it as “I heard that; it is said that.” 

This particular sou (そう) allows you to convey the message from another source that you might have read somewhere, too.

In both cases (using to talk about something you overheard or read about), your own opinion is not included in the information that you are conveying.

For example, a good friend of you gave strong referral on a popular restaurant, claiming the food there is delicious. Your friend would have said something like:

新しいレストランは美味しかったよ！
Atarashii resutoran wa oishikatta yo!
The new restaurant is delicious!

Later on, you invited a fellow friend to come to try the food. You mentioned your friend liked this place. You would say:  

新しいレストランは美味しいそうです。（友達から聞きました。）
Atarashii resutoran wa oishii sou desu (tomodachi kara kikimashita)
I heard that the new restaurant is good. A friend told me about it.  

You can also use this to pass along information you saw somewhere, like the television.

朝、天気予報で見ましたが、今日は雨が降るそうです。
Asa, tenki yohou de mimashita ga, kyou wa ame ga furusou desu.
I saw on the weather report this morning that it’s supposed to rain today.

How to Change Adjective and Verb into Sou (そう) Form

For this particular function of sou (そう), you just add the suffix at the end of plain verb tense. You also leave the adjectives as it is except for when it is  な adjectives because you will have to add だ.

It’s important that the form is slightly different from the first sou (そう).  Be very careful of this, at the small difference can change the meaning by a lot.

美味しそう.
Oishisou.
It looks delicious! 

美味しいそう
Oishiisou
I hear it’s delicious.

雨が降りそう
Ame ga furisou.
It looks like it’s about to rain

雨が降るそう.
Ame ga furu sou.
I heard that it’s supposed to rain. 

How to Use Rashii (らしい): Likeness

らしい is used to also mean something that appears to be so, similar to sou. The difference is in the level of certainty, based on the information available to the speaker. Rashii is always based on ambiguous sources, making your statement less certain and credible. However, as we’ve covered before, sou is used to express something that you’ve seen or heard, either through your own observation or some kind of course. 

Remember our restaurant scenario? Let’s say your dinner date wanted to convey information about the closed restaurant to a third party. The information that they heard from you. Your date would say : 

お店が今日は休みらしい
Omise ga kyou wa yasumi rashii.
It looks like the restaurant is closed today. 

You use sou when the information is certain and rashii when it is less certain. Use “sou” when the information you heard is certain to be true. Use “rashii” when it is not certain. This is the difference between these two.

Because of the lack of certainty, using “rashii” often carries a gossipy, speculative nuance. 

For example, when you saw your coworker, Tanaka-san, handing out a letter of resignation to their boss with your own eyes, you are certain that he is quitting his job. You would say:

山田さんは会社を辞めりそうだよ。
Tanaka-san wa kaisha o yameri sou da yo.
It looks like Tanaka-san is going to quit his job.

Let’s change the scenario a bit. You haven’t seen Tanaka around, but you’re hearing rumors about him. You can’t really verify the information as they are all hearsay, but you still want to discuss this with your coworker, regardless of the certainty. 

山田さんは会社を辞めるらしいよ。
Shachou wa kaisha o yameru rashii yo.
I heard that the manager was going to quit his job (but I am not certain of it). 

How to Transform Adjective, Verb and Noun to Mitai (みたい) Form

Another very common use of らしい is to confirm something as fitting an expectation, pattern or definition. 

This meaning is often used in Japanese with gender. So you might hear of someone or their behavior being 女らしい or 男らしい (onna rashii, otoko rashii), meaning that that’s just what you would expect of/for a man or woman. Conversely, you’ll also hear 女らしくない、男らしくない (not befitting of woman, unmanly) to express the opposite. 

The suffix 〜rashii expresses that something is representing a characteristic very well.

男 らしいが好きだ。
Otokorashii ga suki da.
I like a manly man.

今日は冬らしい寒い日です。
Kyou wa samurashii samui hi desu.
Today is a very cold and winter-like day.

How to Use Mitai (みたい): Like

Based on the level of certainty, mitai (みたい) is used  you judge something from what you are seeing and describe a current state. So how is it different from using sou?

When you use sou (そう) to describe something that appears to be, you can form an opinion about a future possibility by seing or reading a current state you. 

We’ve seen the previos example of using sou to predict that it is going to rain: 雨が降りそう (ame ga furisou). In this grammar, you would have to say:

雨が降ったみたいだね。
Ame ga futta mitai da ne.
It sems like it rained (just now). 

It’s also about a matter of certainty, too. Let’s say you are checking out restaurants for dinner. Google suggests that maybe one of the restaurants you’re interested in might be closed. However, you can’t see the official page and you’re nowhere near the restaurant. You might say it looks like the restaurant is closed today: 休みみたい.(yasumi mitai)

If you call up the restaurant and confirm that, yes, they are are indeed closed, you now have more information, and can say, with certainty to your dinner date: 休みだそうだ. (yasumi da sou da)

みたい is also widely used just to say what something looks or is like. You can use it to liken you dancing in a Japanese summer festival to a dream (夢みたい, yume mitai). You can use it when you’re not sure if you’re eating chicken or pork (鶏肉みたいだけど、豚肉かも, torinikumitai da kedo, butaniku kamo). 

In other words, the suffix mitai also describes an appearance.

How to Transform Adjective, Verb and Noun to Mitai (みたい) Form

How to Use Poi (っぽい): -ish, Somewhat

You will use it to speak about a quality often adverse. っぽい has three main meanings.

1. To say what something is like.

Think of this as similar to the -ish or -ly in English. You can say food is 油っぽい (aburappoi), oily, or that your cream soup is 水っぽい (mizuppoi), watery.. Not a positive meaning. Used with nouns or adjectives (安っぽい yasuppoi, looks cheap). 

2. To say something looks like the opposite of what you expect.

You could say someone’s behavior is 子どもっぽい or childish. The person you’re talking about here is not actually a child. You (If they were and you wanted to say they’re behaving just like a child would or should, you would say 子どもらしい.) Used with nouns. You could say a child is 大人っぽい otonappoi, or behaves like an adult. 

Similarly, if you say an object is 女っぽい, you would be describing something that you didn’t expect to look that way. Maybe you expected it to look more manly or 男らしい. Again, in Japanese, this grammar point is used a lot to talk about gender expectations. 

3. To describe something that someone is likely to do or often does

Two common verbs this is used with are 忘れる and 怒る. っぽい is added to the masu-stem to give 忘れっぽい wasureppoi (forgetful) and 怒りっぽい okorippoi (gets angry easily.) This is used with verbs often to describe personality.

Finally, 〜poi is often translated as “like” in English. You will use it to speak about a quality often adverse. The following examples will help you understand more clearly the nuance:

• 子供（こども）っぽい: speaking of an adult, saying he is childish.
• 熱（ねつ）っぽい: speaking about yourself, being feverish.
• 忘（わす）れっぽい: having a tendency to forget
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Keep in mind that the more you will read Japanese and practice Japanese, the more you will be able to distinguish the nuance. そう、みたい、らしい、ようだ and っぽい are Japanese grammar points in the same family. While they have some similarities, they also have marked differences. They are all used to describe how something looks either with different degrees of certainty or positive/negative nuances. Using Japanese, will clear up the main differences over time. But these grammar points are easy to confuse, so you might find yourself reviewing them from time to time.

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Updated on January 2023 by Kerry Furukawa.