Please check the example sentences you’re giving in the information section for this one. There’s a big warning to not confuse this form with そうだ, but then most of the example sentences seem to be for that grammar point instead and directly contradict the preceding description.
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That’s not the case, they just end in そうだ or そうです but that doesn’t mean they’re for the other そうだ (I heard…) grammar point.
You can tell the difference by what comes before. This grammar point uses the masu-stem of verbs, or i-adjectives without the い, or na-adjectives as is, plus the exceptions mentioned in the explanation. This grammar point’s そう makes clauses that can essentially be used like na-adjectives themselves, for example 雨が降りそうな空, but of course it can also be used at the end of a sentence. And then it looks a lot like the other そうだ, which is why the warning is there.
The other grammar point basically uses normal sentences in plain form to express that the content of the sentence is hearsay. So it’ll be preceded by verbs or adjectives in the dictionary form, or by a noun or na-adjective followed by the copula だ, and so on.
Which is how I understood it as well, but these are the sentences I’m seeing on the page for this grammar point:
彼女は毎日走るそうだ。
これが正しいそうだ。
あの店員は丁寧だそうだ。
彼は宇宙飛行士だそうだ。
彼はもうイギリスに帰らないそうだ。
明日は朝から雨が降るそうだ。
These are all plain form, no? They even come with translations saying “I heard”.
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Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you meant the information tab of the grammar point! You wrote example sentences so I thought it was literally the sentences under the “Examples” tab.
You’re absolutely right, the “information” tab is indeed complete nonsense explaining how to use the grammar point and then giving examples for the other one!
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I highly agree to this! I was so confused by the information section. Thanks for pointing it out @Antlershy! This should get fixed soon!
So just to be clear, the そう that uses the stem of the verb is a seems like, looks like kinda thing, and the そうだ that uses the dictionary form of the verb as a “I heard that…” are completely different things, right? Because for some reason, the example sentences provided in N4’s そう section are all actually the the “I heard that…” type.
The article says that that the conjunctive form of the words is used. Is it the same as the continuative form? I read on wikipedia that it is, but it says that i-adjectives would have -ku, and na-adjectives -de attached, so does it mean that the conjunctive form has two different versions? If so, are there any rules for when should which one be used?
For the example given in the lesson 彼女は毎日走っていそうだ , I am confused about the い and also why is 走る in the てform ?
It’s 走っている “running”, slap a そう on there and you get 走っていそう
“seems she is running everyday”
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Thank you IcyIceBear. That’s what I thought too and so I wonder if it is a typo or some kind of contraction. The contraction I am used to see is ”verbてる”for present continuous tense but not verbてい。
Verb てる is a casual contraction of verbている, it means the same thing, just a lil more casual, shorter and faster to say like “whatcha doin” vs “what are you doing”.
The verb stem of いる (being an ichidan/る verb) in verbている becomes てい.
走っています > 走っています > 走っていそうだ
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This all makes sense now. Thank you IcyIceBear.
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In N4 Lesson 4: 8/18 ようになる, there is an example sentence with そう in front of a verb and it says it’s this grammar point but everything here is そう after the verb. So I don’t really understand what it’s doing or what it means. Thanks in advance!
The sentence in question そうするようになったが、もうそうしたくない。