Grammar Info

N3 Lesson 1: 17/22

そうだ I heard that, It is said that

Do not confuse with the form of そう used with word stems.

Structure

Verb + そう + だ
［い］Adjective + そう + だ
Noun + だ + そう + だ
［な］Adjective + だ + そう + だ

Details

  • Register

    Standard

About そうだ

The auxiliary verb そうだ has two primary functions in Japanese. It can convey one of the following things:

Hearsay: 伝聞(でんぶん) - Highlighting things that have been heard from other people.

Appearance: 様態(ようたい) - Highlighting the way that things 'appear', or 'seem'.

The appearance nuance is covered in another lesson, so we will focus on hearsay in this grammar point. When used to repeat statements that have been heard from other people/sources, そうだ (or そうです) will be paired with the plain form of a verb or い-Adjective, or a noun/な-Adjective followed by だ.

そうだ always implies that the speaker is not 100% certain about the validity of the information that they are conveying. Due to this, it does not sound as confident as other expressions, like ようだ.

Caution

In order to avoid confusion between the そうだ that is used for repeating information, and the そうだ that is used for making observations, the following differences will need to be memorized.

Verbs -

降(ふ)るそうだ - Unaltered verb, そうだ that is repeating information.

降(ふ)りそうだ - Conjunctive form, そうだ that is used for making observations.

い-Adjectives -

寒(さむ)いそうだ - Unaltered adjective, そうだ that is repeating information.

寒(さむ)そうだ - い removed, そうだ that is used for making observations.

Nouns and な-Adjectives -

綺麗(きれい)だそうだ - だ is used before そうだ. This is repeating information.

綺麗(きれい)そうだ - No だ between the な-Adjective and そうだ. This is making an observation.

Examples

--:--

    美味(おい)しいそうだから、たくさん買(か)った。

    I heard they taste good, so I bought a bunch.

    トムの彼女(かのじょ)は女優(じょゆう)だそうだ。

    I heard that Tom's girlfriend is an actress.

    あの方(かた)は親切(しんせつ)だそうです。

    I heard that that person is kind.

    来週(らいしゅう)から気温(きおん)が下(さ)がるそうだ。

    I heard that from next week the temperature is going to drop.

    今晩(こんばん)雨(あめ)が降(ふ)るそうだ。

    I heard it will rain tonight.

  • Get more example sentences!

    Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

  • Online

    • Offline

        • Genki II 1st Edition

          Page 96

        • みんなの日本語 II

          Page 138 [CH 47]

        • Marugoto Elementary 2 (A2) Rikai

          Page 130 & 154

        • Genki II 2nd Edition

          Page 122

        • [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

          Page 407

        • Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide

          Page 264

        • [AIAIJ] An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

          Page 74

      • Track Resources!

        Bunpro tracks all of the resources you’ve visited, and offers relevant bookmarks of physical books to help with offline tracking.

      そうだ – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (11 in total)

      • searls

        searls

        Thanks!

      • testing

        testing

        “これは明日のテストに出るそうだ。覚えておこう。”
        The second sentence is translated as “I should memorize it.” Isn’t it rather “I shall/will memorize it.”, or am I misunderstanding some grammar?

      • Daru

        Daru

        Hey! Extremely late reply, but so that this remains answered if someone else asks:

        It’s ておく + Volitional, so in a way its saying: “I should [do the effort preemptively] memorize it”. If it were literally saying that it shall/needs to be remembered, something like 覚えるべきだ、覚えることだ would probably get that meaning across better, but it’s not the intention.

      Got questions about そうだ ? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

      Join the Discussion