Abstract
Although it is said that soo da ‘it appears’ cannot be used with a noun, an expression like ii hito soo da ‘appear to be a nice person’ is often used by native speakers of Japanese. Based on the actual usage, this study considers the function of this expression and discusses how it differs from that of Lii hito no yoo da ‘seem to be a nice person’, a traditional form of expression expected to be used in the same situation. The study argues that whileii hito no yoo da expresses the speaker’s judgement, ii hito soo da expresses their intuitionand is used in a casual manner when evaluating a person.
