N4 Topics
L10: I Feel Like I Can See
I Feel Like I Can See
In this Topic, we will learn various ways of talking about how something seems or feels. First, we will learn a second use of らしい, used to say that something is ‘typical of (A)’. Second, we will learn the phrase って感じ, a casual phrase used to talk about how something feels. Then we will learn the にみえる and とみえる patterns, which are about how something looks and seems. We will also learn about 風, which is used to talk about the ‘style’ of things. Lastly, we will learn about 見られる, both as the potential and passive form of 見る ‘to see’.
We have previously learned other ways to talk about how things ‘seem’, so we will comprehensively compare all the phrases we know which are superficially similar, as they all have distinct nuances.
Grammar in this Topic
らしい ②
typical of, -ish・like, appropriate for, becoming of, befitting
In our first らしい lesson, we discussed the auxiliary verb use of らしい. In this lesson we will focus on the 形容詞の一部 (auxiliary adjective) usage. An auxiliary adjective is a type of adjective that must be attached to another word for it to have any meaning.
To use らしい in this way, it must be attached to the end of a noun, and will imply that something is 'typical of (A)', where (A) is the noun that comes before it. As this らしい behaves like an い-Adjective, it may also be conjugated to らしく, before a (B) phrase will explain more about 'what' is/was typical of (A).
The primary use of this らしい is to express that (A) has some feature or trait that is expected of itself. It can be used for people, 'studying all night is so typical of Tanaka', or it can be used for things like seasons 'this heat is so typical of the Japanese Summer'. Other common translations are 'to be befitting of (A)', or 'to be appropriate for (A)'.
However, it may also be used negatively, to show that something is (often surprisingly) 'uncharacteristic of (A)'.
Fun Fact
When the noun that appears in (A) and (B) are the same, it will imply that (A) is the 'prime example of (B)', or 'the most (A), (B)'.
って感じ
Kind of thing, Kind of vibe, Kind of feeling
って感じ is a casual phrase which is used to say that something 'feels like' or has the 'vibe' of something. It is made up of the casual quotation marker って and the noun 感じ, meaning 'feeling'. Similar to ending a sentence with '...kind of thing', って感じ tends to soften a statement and make it sound more indirect.
As this phrase uses the quotation marker って, grammatically, it can follow any type of word or phrase.
って感じ is frequently used to wrap up a loose train of thought. A speaker may explain a situation and then add って感じ to summarize the general gist or atmosphere of what they just said.
Caution
って感じ is a casual spoken phrase. In written or more formal contexts it can sound too vague, and as if the speaker's thoughts are not well formed.
にみえる
To look, To seem, To appear
にみえる (primarily written only in hiragana) is a phrase that combines the case marking particle に, with the る-Verb 見える 'to appear', or 'to be visible'. This construction is regularly used with nouns, to show that something 'appears to be (A)', but it may also be partnered with the auxiliary verbs ようだ or そうだ (in their adverbial forms ように and そうに) to add a level of uncertainty. In these cases, it sounds closer to 'to seem to be (A)' in English.
As with many other ようだ structures, みたい may be used instead. This creates the expression みたいにみえる. While this may appear confusing at first, it just means 'to look like something that could be (A)'. In this way it reinforces the 'guess' that the speaker is making.
Caution
In grammar constructions like this, kanji will very rarely be used. This is primarily because it will change the way a native speaker perceives the meaning. Many grammar structures are written purely in hiragana, specifically to express that they are a 'set' construction. Adding kanji can lead a reader to assume that the writer is highlighting the kanji's meaning, rather than the more common grammatical meaning.
とみえる
It seems that, It can be deduced, One can conclude that
とみえる (primarily written only in hiragana) is a phrase that combines the case marking particle と, with the る-Verb見える 'to appear', or 'to be visible'.
This use of the と 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 だ 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
と 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 '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.
風
-style, Way, Fashion
風 is a suffix that is used in Japanese to convey the meaning of 'in the style of (A)', or 'in the fashion of (A)'. Literally, this translates to 'in the wind of (A)', which is just the Japanese way of expressing the former statements.
To use 風, attach it to the end of a noun that you want to label something as being in the 'style' of.
の may also be attached to the end of 風, before connecting it to another noun. This will show that '(B) is in the style of (A)'.
Caution
As a compound structure, this suffix is always pronounced ふう, never かぜ (the standard reading of 風).
がみられる
Can see, Can be seen, Can observe, Can be observed, Be evident, Chance to see something
Unlike 見える 'to be visible', which focuses on whether something can be seen or not, 見られる (the potential form of 見る) focuses on the viewer's physical ability to see something. Due to this が見られる is used to highlight things that require some form of 'effort' to see, like 'changes', 'trends', etc.
As a result of the 'effort' that is required, が見られる is often translated as 'for (A) to be evident', 'it can be observed that (A)', 'it can be seen that (A)', and other similar structures. To use 見られる, simply add it after the noun that you would like to show as being 'evident'.
As られる is both the potential and passive form of 見る, it may be interpreted either way. However, in the case of ラ抜き言葉 (ら removed verbs), only 可能 (possibility) may be expressed, not 受け身 (passivity).
Details
Let’s compare what we’ve learned in this Topic to what we already know from earlier!
Two Faced
Now that we have two different uses of らしい, we can compare them.
The two uses of らしい are generally hard to mix up. Importantly, the ‘typical’ works like an adjective, so can be used in any way い-Adjectives normally can. In cases where we are unsure, context will usually make it completely clear what is meant.
Also, the new use of らしい we just learned (to make a sort of adjective saying something is ‘typical’) is initially confusable with things like みたい (in the metaphorical meaning of ‘like (A)’). As みたい (or よう) is metaphorical, it can be applied to something which is not actually a typical example of the thing in question. For らしい, the use is not metaphorical, so we are highlighting how typical the example is.
Good Vibrations
Next, let’s double check the differences between some of the other things we have learned in this Topic.
As the verb みえる ‘to be visible’ would suggest, にみえる and とみえる are about visual judgements. They talk about appearances.
Conversely, って感じ is about vibes and feelings (literally what 感じ means), and it is used to cap sentences in casual speech.
And, finally, 風 is about ‘style’ or ‘manner’, and is purely a suffix. It is very similar to appending ‘-style’ to a noun in English. It is completely versatile and doesn’t belong to a particular style of speech.