You look at a cake in a window and, without tasting it, you say it looks delicious. That judgment-from-appearance is exactly what 〜そう expresses: おいしそう, "looks tasty." It is one of the most useful things you can build from an adjective, because so much of everyday conversation is guessing at things from how they look — a busy-looking coworker, a sky that looks like rain, a person who looks well.
There is a catch that this page exists to drill: 〜そう has an evil twin. The very same syllables そう, attached differently, mean "I hear that…" — hearsay, not appearance. The only visible difference between "looks tasty" and "I hear it's tasty" is whether you drop the final い. おいしそう = looks tasty (you can see it). おいしいそう = I hear it's tasty (someone told you). Get the attachment right and you say what you mean; get it wrong and you report a rumour you never heard. So the mechanics below are not busywork — they carry the meaning.
い-adjectives: drop 〜い, add そう
Take the adjective, remove the final 〜い, and attach そう. What is left — おいし, 高, 難し, 忙し — is the stem.
| Adjective | Appearance form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| おいしい (oishii) | おいしそう (oishisō) | looks tasty |
| 高い (takai) | 高そう (takasō) | looks expensive |
| 難しい (muzukashii) | 難しそう (muzukashisō) | looks difficult |
| 忙しい (isogashii) | 忙しそう (isogashisō) | looks busy |
| 楽しい (tanoshii) | 楽しそう (tanoshisō) | looks fun / looks like they're enjoying it |
このケーキ、すごくおいしそう！
kono kēki, sugoku oishisō
This cake looks so delicious!
彼は最近ずっと忙しそうだ。
kare wa saikin zutto isogashisō da
He's seemed busy all the time lately.
な-adjectives: add そう to the bare word
な-adjectives have no い to drop, so you simply add そう to the plain word. There is no な (the な only appears before a noun).
久しぶり！元気そうで安心したよ。
hisashiburi! genkisō de anshin shita yo
Long time no see! You look well — that's a relief.
そのアプリ、便利そうだね。今度使ってみようかな。
sono apuri, benrisō da ne. kondo tsukatte miyō kana
That app looks handy. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime.
Verbs: 連用形 (ます-stem) + そう
〜そう also attaches to verbs, where it means "looks like it's about to happen" or "looks like it will." Use the ます-stem (連用形 — the form before ます): 降る → 降り → 降りそう ("looks like it'll rain"), 落ちる → 落ち → 落ちそう ("looks about to fall"), 泣く → 泣き → 泣きそう ("looks about to cry"). For how to build that stem across every verb class, see the ます-stem.
空が急に暗くなった。雨が降りそう。
sora ga kyū ni kuraku natta. ame ga furisō
The sky suddenly went dark. It looks like it's going to rain.
荷物が棚から今にも落ちそうだよ。
nimotsu ga tana kara ima ni mo ochisō da yo
The bag looks like it's about to fall off the shelf any second.
その子は今にも泣きそうな顔をしていた。
sono ko wa ima ni mo nakisō na kao o shite ita
The child had a face like they were about to burst into tears.
The two irregulars you must memorize: よさそう and なさそう
Two very common words break the plain "drop 〜い" rule by inserting an extra さ. These are not optional; the plain forms ×いそう and ×なそう are simply wrong.
- いい ("good") → よさそう. As always, いい reverts to the よ- stem, and then さ is inserted before そう. よさそう means "looks good / seems fine."
- ない ("not / not existing") → なさそう. ない likewise takes an inserted さ, giving なさそう "looks like there isn't / doesn't seem to."
天気もよさそうだし、散歩にでも行かない？
tenki mo yosasō da shi, sanpo ni demo ikanai
The weather looks nice, too — want to go for a walk or something?
ざっと見たかぎり、特に問題はなさそうだ。
zatto mita kagiri, toku ni mondai wa nasasō da
From a quick look, there don't seem to be any particular problems.
The whole point: そう the appearance vs そう the hearsay
Here is the distinction the mechanics have been protecting. Japanese has two grammatically different そう constructions, and they attach to different forms:
| Appearance ("looks/seems") | Hearsay ("I hear that…") | |
|---|---|---|
| Attaches to | the stem (drop 〜い) | the plain form (keep 〜い) |
| い-adjective | おいしそう | おいしいそうだ |
| Meaning | It looks tasty (I can see it) | I hear it's tasty (someone told me) |
| Verb | 降りそう (looks about to rain) | 降るそうだ (I hear it will rain) |
The appearance form is your own eyewitness guess; the hearsay form is secondhand report. And the only orthographic signal separating おいしそう from おいしいそう is that single 〜い. This is why a dropped or kept い is not a spelling nicety here — it flips the meaning from "I can see it's good" to "I'm told it's good." The full side-by-side, including 〜そう next to らしい, みたい, and よう, lives on the appearance vs hearsay comparison page.
この店のラーメン、おいしいそうだよ。友達が言ってた。
kono mise no rāmen, oishii sō da yo. tomodachi ga itteta
I hear this shop's ramen is tasty — a friend told me. (hearsay — い kept)
Appearance 〜そう inflects: 〜そうな, 〜そうに, 〜そうだった
An appearance 〜そう word behaves like a な-adjective in its own right. Before a noun it becomes 〜そうな (おいしそうなパン "tasty-looking bread"); as an adverb it becomes 〜そうに (楽しそうに笑う "to laugh as if having fun"); and it has a past 〜そうだった ("looked X"). This lets you fold an appearance judgment neatly into a bigger sentence.
駅前でおいしそうなパン屋を見つけた。
ekimae de oishisō na pan-ya o mitsuketa
I found a tasty-looking bakery in front of the station.
子どもたちが公園で楽しそうに遊んでいる。
kodomo-tachi ga kōen de tanoshisō ni asonde iru
The kids are playing happily in the park.
To say something doesn't look a certain way, negate with なさそう: an い-adjective goes to its 〜く stem plus なさそう (辛くなさそう "doesn't look spicy"), or you can add じゃなさそう / そうにない. 降りそうにない is the standard "doesn't look like it'll rain."
この料理、見た目ほど辛くなさそう。
kono ryōri, mitame hodo karaku nasasō
This dish doesn't look as spicy as it appears.
How this differs from English
English marks "looks like" with a whole clause — "it looks like it's going to rain," "she seems busy," "that looks delicious" — using separate verbs (look, seem, appear) plus, often, a full subordinate clause. Japanese compresses all of that into a suffix glued onto the stem. There is no verb "to seem" floating in the sentence; the seeming is baked into the adjective's shape, the same way negation is baked into 高くない rather than expressed by a separate "not."
The trap for English speakers is precisely that there is nothing to detach. Because you are used to a standalone seem, you tend to leave the adjective whole (おいしい) and just stick そう after it — and that whole-adjective version is real Japanese, but it means the reported "I hear," not the visual "looks." The habit to build: for appearance, cut the adjective down to its stem first, then add そう.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping the 〜い for an appearance meaning. おいしいそう is not "looks tasty" — it is hearsay, "I hear it's tasty." Drop the い for the visual sense.
❌ このケーキ、おいしいそう！（見た目の話のつもり）
kono kēki, oishii sō (mitame no hanashi no tsumori)
Incorrect for 'looks tasty' — with the い kept, this means 'I hear it's tasty.'
✅ このケーキ、おいしそう！
kono kēki, oishisō
This cake looks tasty!
2. Writing いそう for いい. いい must become the よ- stem, then insert さ: よさそう.
❌ この案でいそうだね。
kono an de isō da ne
Incorrect — いい → よさそう, never ×いそう.
✅ この案でよさそうだね。
kono an de yosasō da ne
This plan looks like it'll work.
3. Writing なそう for ない. ない needs the inserted さ: なさそう.
❌ 時間がなそうだから、急ごう。
jikan ga nasō da kara, isogō
Incorrect — ない → なさそう, with an inserted さ.
✅ 時間がなさそうだから、急ごう。
jikan ga nasasō da kara, isogō
We don't seem to have much time, so let's hurry.
4. Attaching そう to a verb's dictionary form. For an appearance/imminence reading, use the ます-stem, not the dictionary form. 降るそう (dictionary + そう) is hearsay "I hear it'll rain," not "looks like rain."
❌ 雲が黒い。雨が降るそう。（今にも降りそうの意味で）
kumo ga kuroi. ame ga furu sō (ima ni mo furisō no imi de)
Incorrect for 'looks about to rain' — dictionary form + そう is hearsay; use the stem 降り.
✅ 雲が黒い。雨が降りそう。
kumo ga kuroi. ame ga furisō
The clouds are black. It looks about to rain.
5. Leaving the な on a な-adjective. Add そう to the bare word: 元気そう, never ×元気なそう.
❌ おじいちゃん、元気なそうでよかった。
ojiichan, genki-na-sō de yokatta
Incorrect — 元気 + そう = 元気そう, no な.
✅ おじいちゃん、元気そうでよかった。
ojiichan, genkisō de yokatta
Grandpa looks well — I'm glad.
Key Takeaways
- Appearance 〜そう = "looks/seems," from your own observation. い-adjective: drop 〜い + そう. な-adjective: add そう. Verb: ます-stem + そう.
- Irregulars: いい → よさそう, ない → なさそう (both insert さ).
- The whole adjective + そう (おいしいそう, 降るそう) is a different construction — hearsay "I hear that…" The dropped-vs-kept い is the entire signal.
- Appearance 〜そう inflects like a な-adjective: 〜そうな (before nouns), 〜そうに (adverb), 〜そうだった (past). "Doesn't look X" → 〜なさそう / 〜そうにない.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- Two Adjective ClassesN5 — Japanese has two structurally different kinds of adjective — い-adjectives that conjugate themselves like verbs, and な-adjectives that are really nouns borrowing the copula — and this single split explains every adjective form you will ever meet.
- Adverbial Form: 〜く / 〜にN4 — Turning adjectives into adverbs — i-adjectives change 〜い to 〜く (早く走る), na-adjectives add 〜に (静かに歩く) — the same stem that also feeds なる 'become' and する 'make', plus the よく polysemy.
- 〜そう: Appearance ('looks like')N3 — The evidential そう that attaches to a bare stem (降りそう, 高そう, 元気そう) for a direct sensory impression, its irregulars よさそう/なさそう, and the dropped い that tells it apart from hearsay.
- 〜そうだ: Hearsay ('I hear that')N3 — The reported-information そうだ that attaches to a full plain clause (降るそうだ, 高いそうだ, 学生だそうだ) to mean 'I hear / they say,' kept distinct from the looks-like そう by what precedes it.
- そう / よう / みたい / らしい ComparedN3 — The decision page for the four Japanese ways to say 'seems / looks / apparently' — 〜そう (direct perception), 〜ようだ and 〜みたいだ (your own reasoning, formal vs casual), and 〜らしい (secondhand report) — chosen by evidence source and register, not by English wording.