Seeming and Appearing: Sembrare and Parere
In Italian, the verbs sembrare and parere both mean "to seem" or "to appear." They are mostly interchangeable and can be used in two different syntactic constructions: personal and impersonal.
The Personal Construction
When you are talking about a specific thing that "seems" a certain way (like an app, a screen, or a server), you use the personal construction. The item you are describing is the grammatical subject, and you conjugate sembrare or parere to match it.
If the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural (sembrano or paiono).
The Impersonal Construction
When you want to express the broader idea of "It seems that..." or "It appears that...", you use the impersonal construction. Because there is no specific subject acting as the "it," you always use the third-person singular form: sembra or pare.
This structure is typically followed by che (that) and a subordinate clause. Because "seeming" expresses a subjective impression or uncertainty, the verb in that following clause must be in the subjunctive mood.
You can also add an indirect object pronoun before the verb to express to whom it seems that way, such as mi sembra or mi pare ("it seems to me"), or ti sembra ("it seems to you").
Putting It Together
When evaluating software performance or diagnosing server crashes, you will often find yourself using both personal and impersonal constructions side by side to describe exactly what is happening.