みたいに・みたいな - Grammar Discussion

[s1212z]

We had a discussion the other day about this. Hopefully this will connect the two threads

Disambiguation help: みたいに、そういう、のように

ーいう only applies to nouns and usually starts a sentence. You see all the sentence with this/that/that over there/which kind have this in the beginning. If you know the very practical phrase どういう意味ですか, everything else falls into place for the KSAD forms I think よう and みたい are more interchangeable than BP allows (I believe BP is still marking it wrong instead of asking for another meaning). Since they can be both adjective/adverbial and modify noun phrases, there is a of ton flexibility. My teach…

[Pep95]

So am I correct in understanding from your post that this distinction is too strict?

[s1212z]

I reached out to a native for this one as there seems to be a lot of subtleties and they agreed with the BP slight distinction that みたい can a bit more visual while のよう leans towards characteristic (along with colloquial vs. more written difference). Therefore the distinction of “appearance of” and “manner of” work out well for specific instances but not confined to these meanings.

But I believe when used for meanings of “like” or “similar to” (probably the majority of the time), they are interchangeable. I could not get a distinct answer when not use “x” but must use “y” and my teacher also gave the green light to interchange them. The Maggie Sensei entry for みたい and のよう didn’t throw any exceptions either from what I skimmed with many interchangeable examples. Looks like there are times when みたい can overlap with into “seems like” or “heard” for そう・らしい a bit more though. Contrary, I could see how のよう could have more conceptual applications or be written for instruction manuals or something.

For the sentences you mention above, I see no difference in interchanging them as both based on direct information.

[mrnoone]

@Pep95 @s1212z

Hey! Sorry for the slow response

I have removed that part, it was an error. みたい and よう, as you said are basically identical. The よう being more formal, and よう having some other uses like “so that”, ように祈る、ようになる、ようにする where みたい doesn’t work.

It should be something like:
みたいな、ような -> appearance of (modifying nouns)
みたいに、ように -> in the manner of (modifying adverbs, adjectives, verbs)

I am really sorry for the inconvenience it caused!

[Kabukiman]

What is the difference between the two?

[mrnoone]

Hey

みたいな is adjective form (it is used to modify nouns)
みたいに is adverbial form (it is used to modify adjectives, verbs and other advers)
みたい(だ) is the predicative form used at the end of a sentence.

みたいに(and ように) is used in general to show the similarity of something to something else in appearance or in a manner of doing something.

みたい（and ようだ） also has this use + conjecture(possibility of something) (Feedback - Suggested Improvements/Feature Request)

[Kabukiman]

Thank you. It might be a good idea to add that to their respective pages.

[mrnoone]

Done

[Haruka]

The discussion link from みたいに should probably link here. Currently it takes to a topic on てすみません.

[mrnoone]

I will do something about it!

PS
Your avatar is actually amazing >.<

[Haruka]

Thank you!

[rever4217]

Couldn’t this sentence be also taken as “I want to be like that woman”?

[mrnoone]

Hey and welcome on the community forums

てほしい is only used for what we wish/demand from other people.

So:
(あなたに)この女みたいになってほしい
I want you to become like that woman.

If you want to speak about your own wishes you have to use: たい or Nounがほしい

私はあの女の子みたいになりたい。
I want to become like that woman.

ドクロストーンがほしいよ。
I want dokuro stone(item from anime - yattaman).

I hope it helps and if you have more questions feel free to ask,
Cheers

PS
This is a bit more advanced, but interesting. てほしい is also used when we wish for some events (that are beyond speaker will) to happen, like:

雨が降って欲しい.
I wish for rain.
(lit. I wish for rain to fall)

[rever4217]

I see, thank you!

[CrisH]

On the main page for this it says you can get the structure Verb + みたいに, but there aren’t any examples of this form, as far as I can tell. What would that construction be used for? Would it be used to say something like “His walking is like running for other people”?

[mrnoone]

Hey

On the main page for this it says you can get the structure Verb + みたいに , but there aren’t any examples of this form, as far as I can tell. What would that construction be used for?

Good question
We will have to add examples for this usage!

Would it be used to say something like “His walking is like running for other people”?

That’s right! It is used to express resemblance of something to an action described by the verb.
It is easier to understand with a vivid example:

ペンギンは鳥類だけど飛べないよ。だけどまるで空を舞っているみたいに華麗に海中を泳ぐんだ。

Penguins are birds, but can’t fly. But they splendidly swim through the oceans as if soaring (flying) through the air.

I hope it helps!
Cheers

[CrisH]

Thanks

[Howl_UK]

There is a Japanese Ammo video for this grammar point.

She covers みたい, みたいな, みたいに, のような, のように, っぽい and らしい.

"To Be Like" ┃The Differences between みたいな vs ような vs らしい vs っぽい in Japanese

[Sidgr]

Also a 日本語の森動画

JLPT N3 文法 || みたい vs らしい vs そうだ ① ＜#2/20＞

[marlowe]

For this example, " 上手じょうずになりたいから、日本人にほんじんみたいに漢字かんじドリルをしてみる。"

The grammar says that な is used before a noun but here it is に - is this because kanji drills is a suru verb and so is treated as a verb? If so, could you perhaps note something like that on the grammar page, e.g. “look out for suru verbs as it may seem that it’s simply a noun.”