modality N4 common casualpolitewritten
〜に見える — to look ~
〜に見える ・ にみえる
Meaning
- looks ~ / appears (to be) ~ — a judgment based on what something visibly looks like
Key sentence
この絵は本物に見える。
This painting looks like the real thing.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| noun | N + に見える | 本物に見える |
| na-adjective | na-adj + に見える | 元気に見える |
| i-adjective | i-adj (く-form) + 見える | 若く見える |
Variants
〜ように見える — For likening to a whole situation, use 〜ように見える ('looks as if ~'): 雨が降るように見える.
Examples
母は年より若く見える。
My mother looks younger than her age.
彼は今日、元気そうに見えた。
He looked well today.
遠くから見ると、その島は船に見える。
From far away, that island looks like a ship.
When you can't use it
- 〜に見える is literally about the **eyes** — how something looks. For a guess from non-visual evidence (a sound, a feeling, reasoning), use ようだ／みたい instead, not に見える.
Easily confused with
〜そうだ (appearance) 〜そうだ judges a quality or imminent event from a glance (おいしそう = looks tasty); 〜に見える says what something visually resembles or registers as (本物に見える = looks like the real thing). ようだ に見える is strictly visual ('to the eye'); ようだ is a broader inference that can rest on any kind of evidence, visual or not.
See 〜に見える in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜に見える the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled from published Japanese grammar references.