Impressions with gibi gelmek
When a situation is ambiguous or you are relying on your intuition, you can express how things "seem" or "feel" using the phrase gibi gelmek.
To specify who gets the impression, use a dative pronoun like bana (to me), sana (to you), ona (to him/her/it), or bize (to us).
| to seem / to feel like (to someone) | gibi gelmek |
Adjectives and Nouns
To express that something seems a certain way, place a noun or adjective directly before gibi.
| This seems to me like just a hunch. | Bu bana sadece bir önsezi gibi geliyor. |
| The man's answer seemed very ambiguous to me. | Adamın cevabı bana çok muğlak gibi geldi. |
| The coldness in him seemed a bit artificial to me. | Ondaki soğukluk bana biraz yapmacık gibi geldi. |
Questions and Negations
Conjugate gelmek like any standard verb. You can make it negative to say something "doesn't seem" a certain way, or use the question particle mI to ask for someone else's impression.
For things that "seem to be," place var (there is/are) directly before gibi.
| Or does it seem to you too like there's a strangeness? | Yoksa sana da bir tuhaflık var gibi mi geliyor? |
| This artificial attitude doesn't seem convincing to me at all. | Bu yapmacık tavır bana hiç inandırıcı gibi gelmiyor. |
| Did the situation seem dangerous to you? | Durum sana tehlikeli gibi geldi mi? |
Using Full Clauses
You can also describe an action that seems to be happening. Use a fully conjugated verb—often in the present continuous (-Iyor)—followed immediately by gibi.
Notice that the dative pronoun (like bana or bize) can shift around in the sentence for emphasis, but the core structure remains the same: the action clause sits directly before gibi.
| It seemed to me like he meant you. | Bana seni kastediyor gibi geldi. |
| It seemed to me like the man was lying. | Adam bana yalan söylüyor gibi geldi. |
| It seemed to us like the suspect was escaping. | Şüpheli bize kaçıyor gibi geldi. |