みたいだ / ようだ

Seems like / looks like — casual vs formal

'He seems tired.' 'It looks like rain.' Both みたいだ and ようだ mean 'seems like', but みたいだ is casual and ようだ is more formal and evidence-based.

What you'll learn

• みたいだ: casual, based on appearance (like/seems)
• ようだ: formal/objective, based on evidence
• 〜ように: like ~/so that ~ (adverbial simile)

JLPT N4 Japanese self-study — interactive practice, instant feedback, completely free.