Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 10: 5/18

と見(み)えるIt seems that, It can be deduced, One can conclude that

Structure

Verb + とみえる
［い］Adjective + とみえる
［な］Adjective + （だ） + とみえる
Noun + （だ） + とみえる

Details

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About とみえる

とみえる (primarily written only in hiragana) is a phrase that combines the case marking particle と, with the る-Verb見(み)える 'to appear', or 'to be visible'.

This use of the と particle in Japanese is called a result, and marks when (A) is something that has come to a conclusion, or can be concluded. In this way とみえる literally means 'from the way it appears, one can conclude that it's (A)'. However, this translates a bit more smoothly as 'it can be deduced that (A)', or 'it seems that (A)'.

This expression is always used directly after the phrase that it is drawing as a conclusion. However, nouns and な-Adjectives will require だ before とみえる.

While this phrase is conjecture (making a guess about something), it usually implies that the speaker has done some sort of research, or has some reason that led them to 'draw (A) as a conclusion'. Due to this, it appears reasonably confident.

Fun Fact

と always 'sums up' things. As a quotation, it sums up the phrase before it as either something that was said, or thought. As 一緒(いっしょ) 'being together', it sums up groups of things that are existing/performing actions mutually. Lastly, as a result, it sums up causes, and then illustrates their effects.

  • 先生(せんせい)が生徒(せいと)に「廊下(ろうか)で走(はし)るな」と言(い)った。
    The teacher said 'don't run in the hallway' to the students.
  • 母(はは)とレストランに行(い)った。
    I went to the restaurant with my mother.
  • 昼寝(ひるね)をすると夜(よる)に寝(ね)れなくなる。
    I can't fall asleep at night if I take a nap during the day.

Examples

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    あの親(おや)は優(やさ)しいとみえる。

    Those parents seem nice.

    家(いえ)に行(い)ったけど留守(るす)と見(み)えた。

    I went to their house, but it seemed that they weren't home.

    彼(かれ)はマラソンを走(はし)ったと見(み)えてハアハア言(い)っている。

    It seems that he ran a marathon, he is breathing heavily.

    テストに落(お)ちたから、勉強(べんきょう)してなかったと見(み)える。

    Since he failed the test, one can conclude that he did not study.

    水(みず)と見(み)えたが、ラムネでした。

    It seemed that it was water, but it was lemon soda. (One can conclude that)

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      とみえる – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (16 in total)

      • bsmith99

        bsmith99

        Do the parentheses mean that “da” is optional when used with nouns?

      • MKSea

        MKSea

        I’m a bit confused about the translation of the following example sentence for this grammar point.

        彼が今プールから出て来たと見えて、全部が濡れている。

        “He is completely soaked. It can be deduced that he just got out of a pool.”

        I don’t really understand why the order of the clauses is flipped in the translation like this. Based on the other examples, I assumed this would be roughly translated as

        “It seems like he just got out of the pool, so/and he is completely soaked” or maybe
        “It seems like he just got out of the pool, which explains why he is completely soaked”

        Are these also accurate translations, or is there something about flipping the order of the clauses that is closer to the Japanese meaning? Just want to make sure I’m not missing any subtleties here.

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        I don’t think the order absolutely needs to be flipped because we can do both orders in English.

        A key point is that the second phrase is something the speaker has actually observed, and based on that, the speaker deduces what the first phrase says. The bunpro translation makes this very explicit but it’s not necessarily the most natural English.

        Your translations on the other hand kind of miss this point. In particular the one with “so” even turns it around. I think something like “It seems like he just got out of the pool, because he’s completely soaked” would work better.

        Not sure if helpful, but another approach is treat the first phrase as modifying the predicate (like an adverbial phrase). I.e. the first phrase describes the way in which the second phrase happens. The て form can have many meanings, but in some expressions it’s always used like this. For example if you see a を使って it will usually not mean “use X and do Y”. It’l...

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