100 GRAMMAR POINTS

54. like, as if, apparently らしい

This is similar to ~sou where the speaker is repeating info heard from another source. The only difference may be ~rashii may be based on the more reliable information.

Construction:
1) simple verb + ~rashii

山田さん　は　帰った　らしい　です。
yamada san wa kaetta rashii desu.
It sounds like Mr. Yamada has come home.

2) noun + ~rashii

There are a few nouns with rashii that you can remember as a vocabulary word in itself. This meaning is slightly different from the above verb construction. Instead of meaning “info heard elsewhere,” when added to a noun it means the speaker thinks something “looks like something.” Here are a few:

男らしい otokorashii – manly (like a man)
女らしい onnarashii – girly (but perhaps 女っぽい onnappoi is used more)
犬らしい inurashii – like a dog (substitute any animal here. This is useful when you see an animal at night and are not sure what it is, but it looks like…)
アメリカらしい amerikarashii – American-ish (substitute any country)

• Another similar construction with nouns is ~ppoi – as seen above with onnappoi.
• When added to nouns to mean “looks like…” ~ppoi is the same as ~rashii

100 GRAMMAR POINTS

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