例：　鈴木さん　本当に　おいしそう　飲みますね。
英語翻訳： "You really look like you are enjoying what you are drinking Mr Suzuki"

I am having trouble comprehend the method to translate 形容詞+そうに+動詞　construction the example of which is given above. How to understand and translate adjective+you ni+verb? When we say 形容詞+ように we mean something looks like having some property. おいしそう means looking delicious、　ゆっくりそう　means looks slow、　重そう means looks heavy. But how do I interpret the meaning of combining these with a verb, can you give some examples? After all ゆっくりそうに走る is not the same as ゆっくりに走りそょう、or perhaps thats a terrible comparison.

Thanks.

I think you pretty much nailed it.

いーadj. stem - ku - verb turns the adjective into an adverb

adj. stem - souni - verb, in this pattern you can loosely translate the souni into "seemingly" ...means the verb appears to the speaker to have the adjective's property, with the caviat that this is the speaker's opinion.

The そう suffix in itself is a な adjective. You can modify nouns with it like おいしそうなケーキ. Cake that looks delicious.

Well, with regular な adjectives you use に instead of な to use them as adverbs. So, きれい is pretty/clean. きれいな女の子 means pretty girl. きれいに掃除する means straighten up a room so that it's clean. It's an adverb so it's telling the way in which the verb is being done.

Incidentally, you'll notice that the example doesn't translate that well in English. きれいに掃除する is a common expression in Japanese, and it emphasizes the fact that you want the result to be quite clean. In the same way a lot of Japanese adverb use may seem a bit strange and you'll have to get used to them.

Since the そう is a な adjective you can do the same thing. If you add に to the end of it, it tells the way in which the verb is being done. Of course, this grammar is about appearance. ケーキをおいしそうに食べている means 'He's eating the cake as if it's delicious.' The に lets us know that the おいしそう is connected to a verb--it's describing the way that he's eating. He's eating as if it's delicious.

If we used な it would be an adjective, and would look like this おいしそうなケーキを食べている. Here the おいしそう is connected by な to the cake. 'He's eating cake that looks delicious.' Here the おいしそう is commenting on how the cake looks, not on how he's eating it.

Much like with the きれい example, examples using this そう grammar might at first seem a bit strange to an English speaker, but it shouldn't take long to get used to what they're implying.

OK lets take a few adjectives than,
早い　→　早そう　→　早そうに起きました。 He got up as if it looks early.
安い　→　安そう　→　安そうにかいました。 He bought it as if it looked cheap (not that it was actually cheap).

Is this correct?

ok tzadeck, can you explain the difference for me then between

1-　詳しく喋っている
and
2-　詳しそうに喋っている
?

I was under the impression that the second [adj - souni - verb] pattern differed in that it acted like adj-sou (or a polite 美味そうだ for example) in expressing conjecture or judgement based on how he or she feels.

dtcamero Wrote:ok tzadeck, can you explain the difference for me then between

1-　詳しく喋っている
and
2-　詳しそうに喋っている
?

I was under the impression that the second [adj - souni - verb] pattern differed in that it acted like adj-sou (or a polite 美味そうだ for example) in expressing conjecture or judgement based on how he or she feels.

I'm not Tzadeck, but... didn't you just answer your own question? Because you're right.
The first is 'He spoke in detail', ('He spoke in a way that demonstrated that he was knowledgeable') ;
The second is 'He spoke knowledgeably', or, 'He spoke as if he knew what he was about' ('He spoke in a way that appeared to me as if he was knowledgeable.')

(These results are the product of a thought experiment. Results in actual context conditions may vary. If you are pregnant, consult with your doctor before using these results.)

ok i thought he was saying that the adj-souni-pattern wasn't conjecture etc, but rather just another way of phrasing the same information... but perhaps I read it wrong.

He's not stressing that it's conjecture, but rather focusing on that it's appearances and manners, but it ends up the same thing. This kind of そう reports perceived appearances - it cannot be used for pure thought conjecture, nor can it be used for perceivable facts (if something looks red it -is- 赤い, not　赤そう which my IME doesn't even want to let me convert, that's how awful -that- would be), it's used for opinions based on observations.
I think it's fair to stress that it's about appearance more than it's about opinion, since it's not always clearly about 'opinion' so much as a grammar point that makes it clear that this is from an outside point of view. It's one of those clues that helps identify if the speaker is referring to themselves or someone else. (Or in third-person fiction, helps identify if the narrator is referring to the main character or another character.) The whole 'conjecture' part of it is a little fuzzy, but the 'appearances' part of it is, I think, consistent in all usages (but now someone probably has a counter-example to that claim... but that's okay, it's how I learn. )

matrixofdynamism Wrote:OK lets take a few adjectives than,
早い　→　早そう　→　早そうに起きました。 He got up as if it looks early.
安い　→　安そう　→　安そうにかいました。 He bought it as if it looked cheap (not that it was actually cheap).

Is this correct?

You seem to be getting confused by the English translations. そうだ is used to make a simple guess about what you see. If you want to make an adverb with そう, you need to make a simple guess about the subject based on how you see it performing the action of the verb. You didn't see 彼 get up, and 彼 can appear neither 早い nor 安い. When 彼 is buying something, he might appear うれしい or 恥ずかしい, and when he gets up, he might appear 苦しい or 眠い.

If you don't or didn't see 彼 buying something or getting up, then you can't use そう. To make guesses about what time he got up, you need to take the simple guess based on what you see 「疲れそうだ」, and use a bit of mental reasoning to infer that he got up early. This is where ようだ would be appropriate, e.g.「彼は早起きしたようだ」.

hmm this thing is coming from Japanes for busy people III. I never thought it did get so much confusing. > : |