Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 10: 5/18

()えるIt seems that, It can be deduced, One can conclude that

Structure

Verb + みえる
[い]Adjective + みえる
[な]Adjective + () + みえる
Noun + () + みえる

Details

  • Register

    Standard

About とみえる

とみえる (primarily written only in hiragana) is a phrase that combines the case marking particle , with the る-Verb()える 'to appear', or 'to be visible'.

This use of the particle in Japanese is called a result, and marks when (A) is something that has come to a conclusion, or can be concluded. In this way とみえる literally means 'from the way it appears, one can conclude that it's (A)'. However, this translates a bit more smoothly as 'it can be deduced that (A)', or 'it seems that (A)'.

This expression is always used directly after the phrase that it is drawing as a conclusion. However, nouns and な-Adjectives will require before とみえる.

While this phrase is conjecture (making a guess about something), it usually implies that the speaker has done some sort of research, or has some reason that led them to 'draw (A) as a conclusion'. Due to this, it appears reasonably confident.

Fun Fact

always 'sums up' things. As a quotation, it sums up the phrase before it as either something that was said, or thought. As 一緒(いっしょ) 'being together', it sums up groups of things that are existing/performing actions mutually. Lastly, as a result, it sums up causes, and then illustrates their effects.

Examples

--:--

    あの(おや)(やさ)みえる

    Those parents seem nice.

    (いえ)()ったけど留守(るす)()えた

    I went to their house, but it seemed that they weren't home.

    (かれ)マラソン(はし)った()えてハアハア()ている

    It seems that he ran a marathon, he is breathing heavily.

    テストに()ちたから勉強(べんきょう)してなかった()える

    Since he failed the test, one can conclude that he did not study.

    (みず)()えた、ラムネでした

    It seemed that it was water, but it was lemon soda. (One can conclude that)

  • 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

        There are no Offline resources listed for 「とみえる」.

        You can . Resources are constantly updated, come back later to see new additions!

      • Track Resources!

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

      とみえる – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (17 in total)

      • Pushindawood

        Pushindawood

        it seems that, it can be deduced, one can conclude that

        Structure
        ・Verb + とみえる
        ・Noun + とみえる
        ・いAdj + とみえる
        ・なAdj + とみえる

        [Conjecture/guess・based on some information, often visual ・some confidence]

        View on Bunpro

      • veryslowlearner

        veryslowlearner

        A Japanese guy told me にみえる is pretty uncertain, so presumably the と is doing something here to make it more certain, as if it is quoting some observation or knowledge?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        It is because it is most of the time used with some basis for reasoning. Like:

        テスト落たから、勉強してなかった と見みえる
        Since he failed the test, one can conclude that he did not study.

        テスト落たから is our factual ground in this case.

      • veryslowlearner

        veryslowlearner

        What exactly does the と do?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        It means “that”.

      • veryslowlearner

        veryslowlearner

        cheers for that!

      • LilianC

        LilianC

        Why the て in 彼(かれ)はマラソンを走(はし)った みえて ハアハアが言(い)っている ?

      • eefara

        eefara

        Looks like it’s using て to connect the two thoughts- “it looks like he ran a marathon” (彼はマラソンを走った) and “he is breathing heavily” (ハアハア言っている). Presumably the latter would be a reason for the former as visual evidence.

        On an unrelated note, I wanted to ask why the grammar point is introduced as とみえる, but all of the sentences use 見; seems strange not to introduce it as と見える.

        Edit: Aaaand one more question: on that final example sentence, how is 終わらせてなかった conjugated? It looks like 終わる is being put into causative form here, which doesn’t seem to make sense with the s...

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        On an unrelated note, I wanted to ask why the grammar point is introduced as とみえる, but all of the sentences use 見; seems strange not to introduce it as と見える.

        I have changed the title to “と見える”!

        Edit: Aaaand one more question: on that final example sentence, how is 終わらせてなかった conjugated? It looks like 終わる is being put into causative form here, which doesn’t seem to make sense with the sentence…

        It is kind of a trick, you can change intransitive verb with a causative form to transitive one.
        So basically 終わらせる = 終える.
        Plus, I think it has a stronger nuance of putting energy/effort when compared to 終える。

        Sorry for late answer!

      • eefara

        eefara

        Whoa, that is really cool. Does Bunpro cover this kind of behavior in any of the lessons?

      • mrnoone

        mrnoone

        Hey

        To be honest, I thought about doing a lesson about this. But for the time being, I wrote an example like that, hoping that someone would ask about it from curiosity.

      • eefara

        eefara

        I’ll make a note about it for now, then, and see if I can look up more examples. Thanks for the mini lesson!

      • Kuromaku

        Kuromaku

        Can someone explain to me how this sentence works?

        今日の宿題は難しかった とみえて 、誰も終わらせてなかった。

        Specifically とみえて I just don’t get it.

        The rest is fine.

      • eefara

        eefara

        This looks like a pretty straightforward example of the grammar point. とみえる means “it seems that”, and とみえて is just the て form, allowing the two thoughts in the sentence to connect: “it seems today’s homework was difficult” and “no one finished it”.

      • bsmith99

        bsmith99

        Do the parentheses mean that “da” is optional when used with nouns?

      • MKSea

        MKSea

        I’m a bit confused about the translation of the following example sentence for this grammar point.

        彼が今プールから出て来たと見えて、全部が濡れている。

        “He is completely soaked. It can be deduced that he just got out of a pool.”

        I don’t really understand why the order of the clauses is flipped in the translation like this. Based on the other examples, I assumed this would be roughly translated as

        “It seems like he just got out of the pool, so/and he is completely soaked” or maybe
        “It seems like he just got out of the pool, which explains why he is completely soaked”

        Are these also accurate translations, or is there something about flipping the order of the clauses that is closer to the Japanese meaning? Just want to make sure I’m not missing any subtleties here.

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        I don’t think the order absolutely needs to be flipped because we can do both orders in English.

        A key point is that the second phrase is something the speaker has actually observed, and based on that, the speaker deduces what the first phrase says. The bunpro translation makes this very explicit but it’s not necessarily the most natural English.

        Your translations on the other hand kind of miss this point. In particular the one with “so” even turns it around. I think something like “It seems like he just got out of the pool, because he’s completely soaked” would work better.


        Not sure if helpful, but another approach is treat the first phrase as modifying the predicate (like an adverbial phrase). I.e. the first phrase describes the way in which the second phrase happens. The て form can have many meanings, but in some expressions it’s always used like this. For example if you see a を使って it will usually not mean “use X and do Y”. It’l...

      • Isurandil492

        Isurandil492

        家に行ったけど留守と見えた。
        I went to their house, but it seemed that they weren’t home.

        What tells me that the person is talking about themselves here? My translation would have been “He/she went to (their) house, but it seems that noone was at home.” (implying that later when the speaker looked/visited the house, noone was home).

      Got questions about とみえる? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

      Join the Discussion