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### 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.

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If the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural (**sembrano** or **paiono**).

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### 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.

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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"). 

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### 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.

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Personal and impersonal seeming (sembrare, parere)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (il, la, l')

Indefinite articles (un, una)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
responsive	reattivo
the anomaly / the glitch (f)	l'anomalia
The application seems responsive, but there is an anomaly.	L'applicazione sembra reattiva, ma c'è un'anomalia.
the navigation / the browsing	la navigazione
fluid / smooth	fluido
The navigation seems more fluid than fast.	La navigazione pare più fluida che veloce.
the screen / the screenshot	la schermata
the malfunction	il malfunzionamento
The screen seems blocked by a malfunction.	La schermata sembra bloccata da un malfunzionamento.
the latency / the lag	la latenza
These servers seem slow because of the latency.	Questi server sembrano lenti per la latenza.
the integration (f)	l'integrazione
the recovery / the restoration (of systems, services)	il ripristino
The integration seems impossible without the recovery.	L'integrazione pare impossibile senza il ripristino.
the incompatibility (f)	l'incompatibilità
It seems that there is an incompatibility in the software.	Sembra che ci sia un'incompatibilità nel software.
It seems to me that the malfunction is serious.	Mi pare che il malfunzionamento sia grave.
It seems that the new integration is fluid.	Sembra che la nuova integrazione sia fluida.
It seems that the latency ruins the navigation.	Pare che la latenza rovini la navigazione.
The anomaly? We are talking about it because it seems serious.	L'anomalia? Ne parliamo perché sembra grave.
The recovery seems finished, but it seems that the screen is empty.	Il ripristino pare finito, ma sembra che la schermata sia vuota.
Does it seem to you that the software works?	Ti sembra che il software funzioni?
The server seems responsive, but it appears that the incompatibility is serious.	Il server sembra reattivo, ma pare che l'incompatibilità sia grave.

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