Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### 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.

{{item:856790}}

{{item:856793}}

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

{{item:856798}}

### 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.

{{item:856803}}

{{item:856805}}

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"). 

{{item:856804}}

{{item:856809}}

### 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.

{{item:856810}}

Personal and impersonal seeming (sembrare, parere)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

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
anomaly / glitch	l'anomalia
The application seems responsive, but there is an anomaly.	L'applicazione sembra reattiva, ma c'è un'anomalia.
navigation / browsing	la navigazione
fluid / smooth	fluido
The navigation seems more fluid than fast.	La navigazione pare più fluida che veloce.
screen / screenshot	la schermata
malfunction	il malfunzionamento
The screen seems blocked by a malfunction.	La schermata sembra bloccata da un malfunzionamento.
latency / lag	la latenza
These servers seem slow because of the latency.	Questi server sembrano lenti per la latenza.
integration	l'integrazione
recovery / restoration (of systems, services)	il ripristino
The integration seems impossible without the recovery.	L'integrazione pare impossibile senza il ripristino.
incompatibility	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.