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
like
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
like
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
like
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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