A Corpus-based Study of the Usage and Contexts of ii hito soo da ‘appear to be a nice person’:

Toward Introducing it in Japanese Classroom

Abstract

The phrase ii hito soo da ‘appear to be a nice person’ is an expression often used in Japanese　colloquial speech to express the speaker’s intuitional inference. Despite its common usage among native speakers as a casual expression, it is not introduced in Japanese textbooks. Based on a web corpus, this paper will examine the usage and contexts of this phrase and demonstrate its primary use when evaluating a third person. The paper will also suggest how to introduce this phrase in the Japanese classroom.