Seems vs Sounds vs Looks Like Learn English Vocabulary

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hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to talk about the

differences between

seams sounds and looks especially when

using the word

like as in seems like or sounds like or

looks like so let’s get started all

right

i first want to talk about seems like

seems or

seems like we use these in slightly

different ways

first we use seams to make general

guesses

about things we cannot confirm or things

we cannot check

so when i say we cannot confirm

it’s like something that we can’t test

quickly we can’t check our guess right

away

so we use seams to make guesses about

these kinds of things

second we can use seams directly before

an adjective or an adverb

third we use seems like

before a noun phrase so please keep in

mind

seems no like comes before an adjective

or an

adverb seems like comes before

a noun phrase so this is a key

difference and we’ll see this same

pattern

with the other words in this lesson too

so let’s look at a few examples

first you seem tired

you seem tired and she seems nice

she seems nice these are examples where

we use

seams with an adjective so

tired and nice are adjectives we just

use

seem or seems because we conjugate for

this subject

here so when we use it in this way

before an adjective or an adverb we do

not use

like let’s look at this other example

sentence though

this seems like a nice place to stop

for lunch a nice place to stop for lunch

so here we have this noun phrase yes the

word

nice is in this noun phrase there’s an

adjective in here

but this right here this is a nice place

so we’re talking about the place

actually

it’s not just the adjective that this is

modifying

so we need to use seems like to talk

about it so that place

seems like a nice place we could say

it seems nice sure but if we’re talking

about the place the actual noun

we need to use seams like to describe

that so it seems like

a nice place okay so with this

in mind with seams in mind which we use

for general guesses

let’s continue on to the next part which

focuses on

sounds sounds so we use

sounds and sounds like to make guesses

about things based on information we get

with our ears so that means we hear

something

and we make a guess based on

the thing that we heard so i hear

something

like from another room or i hear a sound

from outside

i make a guess about the situation

based on that sound so i got the

information with my

ears second point which is the same as

seems we use sounds directly before an

adjective or

an adverb again and here also sounds

without the word like we don’t use like

here

just sounds or sound third

as we talked about with seams we use

sounds like

before a noun phrase so some examples of

sounds first she sounds

sick she sounds sick so sick is an

adjective we’re

using sounds here because our subject is

she she sounds sick you sound sick it’s

how we would use this

so sick we use this adjective here

because maybe the guess

is based on like hearing someone

coughing like that

sound you might think hmm that person

sounds

sick or maybe they’re sneezing or

maybe they just are making some kind of

awful sound

and you think um that person sounds sick

so that’s based on information we get

with our ears

second example sentence that sounds

great

that sounds great this is a very useful

and very common response to

an idea or a suggestion like for example

do you want to see a movie tonight that

sounds great

so it’s like you heard the suggestion

you got that suggestion with your

ears and your response is that sounds

great so that’s a good idea

in other words so this is a very common

way that we use

sounds in this pattern to respond

positively

to a suggestion that sounds great

third that sounds like a bad

idea that sounds like a bad idea

so this is a good negative response to a

suggestion if someone tells you like

let’s stay up all night drinking energy

drinks

you could say that sounds like a bad

idea

so again this is for information we got

with our ears

and in this case it’s a noun phrase a

bad idea so again there is an adjective

here

the adjective is modifying the noun idea

so that sounds like a bad idea a bad

idea is the noun phrase

therefore we have to use sounds like

in this sentence we use like here that

sounds like a bad idea

so you’ll notice sounds like and seems

or just seams and sounds follow a

similar pattern

but sounds is used for information we

get with our ears

okay so with this in mind let’s go to

the last word for this lesson

looks or looks like looks like

is a little different from seams and

sounds because there are two

different ways that we use the look

pattern or the looks like

pattern first in the same way as we use

the other two words

we can use looks for guesses about

things based on information we get with

our

eyes so sounds is specifically for

information we get with our ears

looks is used for information we get

with our eyes

so again we use this before an adjective

or an adverb just look or looks

and we use looks like before a noun

phrase some examples of this first

this hiking trail looks difficult

so here’s my adjective difficult i’ve

used

looks here so this hiking trail is my

subject

it looks difficult so no like

here so i want to express like i’m

making a guess

i think this is difficult it looks

difficult

based on like my visual understanding of

it so if you’re standing in front of the

hiking trail

and you look at the hiking trail and it

seems really hard

like i just said seems that’s okay too

if it seems difficult you can say

wow this looks difficult so

another key point for this lesson so i

just used

seams to talk about using like the word

looks

so i mentioned that seems is used for

like general guesses about things yes

and it’s okay to use it there’s not a

communication problem to use it for

something you get with your

information you get with your eyes or

information you get with your ears

but if you can use

looks or sounds to describe that thing

or to make your guess

it’s probably going to sound a little

more natural to use that so i just said

this hiking trail seems difficult so

that sounds quite

general but if i use this hiking trail

looks

difficult it sounds better because the

listener

understands i can see the trail so i’m

making a guess

based on like the information in my eyes

kind of

so i can see it so that’s why i’m saying

this that’s the reason for this comment

so if you can try to use looks or

sounds to make your guess seems does

sound more general

okay another example with looks so

it looks like it’s gonna rain it looks

like it’s gonna rain this is a

very common actually way to express

like a weather prediction so it looks

like it’s going to rain or it looks like

it’s going to snow or it looks like it’s

going to

clear up so clear up means become clear

so we use it to talk about the weather

but

it looks like it is gonna rain so it

really here is our noun phrase so looks

like is the expression we use we use

here but as i mentioned there are

actually two different ways of using

looks like and so this second one you

need to be careful of

the pattern that we use here is a looks

b so this means a is

visually similar to b

or that means a has an appearance

similar to b so these two things

share an appearance a looks like

b they look the same examples

that cloud looks like a rabbit

so that cloud a looks like a rabbit

so that means the two things have the

same appearance or this a similar

appearance another example your house

looks like

a mansion your house a looks like

a mansion b so the two things have

similar appearances so you can pretty

i think clearly tell you can pretty

clearly understand

which meaning of looks like is intended

based on the situation is the speaker

comparing appearances

or is the speaker making a guess

depending on the sentence

you can usually pretty clearly

understand which one the speaker wants

to say

okay so finally a couple points here

i did mention yes if you can use looks

or sounds to describe your guess please

do that it’s very clear

and second just a general point about

the word

seem is that we use seem for like very

general

feelings and experiences so in my

example sentences

i was talking about people’s emotions or

maybe like

my opinion about a place so

it’s kind of a very general situation

where we use

seam so this is a quick introduction to

how to use these words

i hope that it was helpful for you but

if you have any questions or comments or

if you want to practice

making a sentence with one of these

please feel free to do so in the comment

section of this video

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much for watching this lesson and i will

see you again

soon bye-bye

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