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A veces, el chico tímido parece egoísta o perezoso.

A veces, el chico tímido parece egoísta o perezoso.
Sometimes, the shy boy seems selfish or lazy.
From Lesson 249:Comparatives of equality (igual de... que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about A veces, el chico tímido parece egoísta o perezoso.

Why does egoísta end in -a if it's describing a masculine noun (el chico)?
Adjectives that end in -ista (like egoísta, optimista, or pesimista) are gender-neutral. You use the exact same word whether you are describing a boy (el chico egoísta) or a girl (la chica egoísta).
Why use parece here instead of the reflexive se parece?
The non-reflexive verb parecer means "to seem" or "to appear," which is exactly what we need here. You use the reflexive parecerse (a) when you want to say that someone "looks like" or "is similar to" someone or something else (for example, se parece a su hermano - "he looks like his brother").
If we changed el chico to la chica, which words in this sentence would change?
The sentence would become: A veces, la chica tímida parece egoísta o perezosa. Notice how tímido and perezoso change their endings to -a to match the feminine noun, but egoísta doesn't change because of its fixed -ista ending.
Is a veces exactly the same as algunas veces?
Yes! Both mean "sometimes." A veces is just a fixed phrase that is very common and slightly shorter to say, but you could absolutely start this sentence with Algunas veces... and the meaning would remain exactly the same.

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