そう

Caution

そう may also be used when attached to the い-Adjective, ない. In this case, there is a unique conjugation rule which we will need to be careful of. As always, い will be removed from ない before attaching そう. However, さ will be inserted between な, and そう. This creates the expression なさそう.

• 彼(かれ)の部屋(へや)は汚(きたな)くなさそうだ。
  His room doesn't seem messy.
• あの車(くるま)は小(ちい)さくて便利(べんり)じゃなさそう。
  That car is small, and looks inconvenient.

Note that this addition of さ does not happen with verbs. This is due to the ない that is used with negative verbs being an auxiliary verb, and not an い-Adjective. With the auxiliary verb ない, simply remove the い, before adding そう directly to the stem.

• 彼(かれ)はもうイギリスに帰(かえ)らなそうだ。
  It appears that he is not going back to England.

Caution

This そう is utilized exclusively to make predictions/guesses about something based on visual information. It is relatively low confidence, so should not be used for things that are obvious. In these cases, みたい would be used instead.

• 明日(あした)は朝(あさ)から雨(あめ)が降(ふ)るみたいだ。
  It looks like it is going to start raining tomorrow morning. (Higher confidence)
• 明日(あした)は朝(あさ)から雨(あめ)が降(ふ)りそうだ。
  It seems like it is going to start raining tomorrow morning. (Lower confidence)