nihongo wo benkyou shitai

日本語：	[verb (short)] そうです
日本語：	[adjective (short)] そうです
日本語：	[noun] そうです
English:	I hear that

Today's post is essentially a rewrite of a post I did a while ago. Looking back, that post isn't really complete and didn't cater for what the JLPT requires. So, if some of today's post seems familiar, now you know...

Simply put, そうです allows us to communicate secondhand information, such as information gleaned from the TV or newspaper or from a friend. The veracity of the information communicated by そうです is more than a simple guess, but is not as high as something you have determined yourself.

そうです can be applied to verbs in bases 1, 3 and 7, adjectives and nouns. With ーな adjectives, the ーな becomes だ. With nouns, the です becomes だ.

例文

English:	I hear that it will rain tomorrow
Jenglish:	[tomorrow][rain][fall + hear]
日本語：	明日雨が降るそうです。

English:	I heard he failed the exam.
Jenglish:	[he][exam][failed + hear]
日本語：	彼は試験に落ちたそうです。

English:	According to a magazine I read, eBay is very popular in Europe.
Jenglish:	[read][magazine][according to][eBay][Europe][in][very][popular + hear]
日本語：	私が読んだ雑誌によるとeBayはヨーロッパにとても人気だそうです。

There are two closely related conjugations:ようです and らしい. Between them, the three allow us to construct 'I hear that' sentences, but they differ in politeness and the veracity of the information being communicated. To convey presumed information gained from an external source, use either そうです or らしい. らしい is a more casual way of communicating this and as such frequently used without です. To convey presumed information derived from your own senses or reasoning, use ようです.

A final note: It is pretty important to note that this use of そうです should not be confused with another, similar use. Here, そうです means 'I hear that'. However, in a slightly different conjugation, it can mean 'It seems'. They sound VERY similar, but they are not!

またね。。。