quotation N4 common casualpolitewritten
そうだ — I hear that
そうだ
Meaning
- I hear that ~ / they say ~ — reports information received from another source
Key sentence
田中さんは来週引っ越すそうだ。
I hear Tanaka is moving next week.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| verb / i-adjective | V/A(plain) + そうだ | 降るそうだ / おいしいそうだ |
| na-adjective / noun | na-adj + だ + そうだ; N + だ + そうだ | 静かだそうだ / 学生だそうだ |
Examples
天気予報によると、明日は雪が降るそうです。
According to the forecast, it'll snow tomorrow.
あの店のラーメンはとてもおいしいそうだ。
They say the ramen at that shop is really good.
彼の話では、試験は来月だそうだ。
From what he says, the exam is next month.
When you can't use it
- Hearsay そうだ does not inflect: there is no ✗そうな／✗そうに and no past ✗降るそうだった form. It only ends a sentence reporting what you heard. (The inflecting そう — おいしそうな — is the appearance そうだ.)
- Attaches to the **plain form**. Attaching to the stem makes it the appearance そうだ instead: 降るそうだ = 'I hear it'll rain'; 降りそうだ = 'it looks about to rain.'
Easily confused with
〜そうだ (appearance) Same surface だ, opposite job — and the attachment tells them apart: plain form + そうだ = hearsay (降るそうだ); stem + そうだ = appearance (降りそうだ). らしい Both pass on secondhand information, but 伝聞の そうだ reports it straight ('I hear ~'); らしい is hazier and lets the speaker stay non-committal ('apparently ~'). ようだ そうだ (hearsay) just relays what someone told you; ようだ is the speaker's own inference from evidence. Different sources of knowing — report vs deduction.
Notes
- The source is often named with 〜によると／〜によれば ('according to ~') or 〜の話では.
See そうだ in real sentences
Jengo shows そうだ the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.