らしい

Auxiliary Adjective (い) (Basic ㊦ 373)

An auxiliary adjective which indicates that the preceding sentence is the speaker’s conjecture based on what he has heard, read or seen.

Equivalent: Seem; look like; apparently; I heard

松田さんはアメリカへ行くらしい・らしいです。
It seems that Mr. Matsuda is going to America.
杉本さんはもう帰ったらしいです。
Mr. Sugimoto seems to have gone home already.
あの学校の入学試験は難しいらしい。
That school's entrance exam seems difficult.
この辺りはとても静からしいです。
This neighbourhood seems very quiet.
その話は本当らしい。
That story seems true.
ここは学校らしい。
This place seems to be a school.

Formation

(i) {V/Adjective い} informal らしい  
  {話す /話した} らしい It seems that someone (will) talk/talked
  {高い /高かった} らしい It seems that something is/was expensive
(ii) {Adjective な stem/ Noun} {Ø/だった} らしい  
  {静か /静かだった} らしい It seems that something is/was quiet
  {先生 /先生だった} らしい It seemst aht someone is/was a teacher

Notes

1. らしい is generally used when the speaker makes a conjecture based on some information which he has heard, read or seen. What he has heard is especially important. Unlike そうだ2, which expresses a simple guess based on what the speaker sees, らしい is used when the conjecture is based on more reliable information. (⇨ そうだ2) (For a comprehensive comparison of conjecture expressions, see (⇨ ようだ, Related Expressions.)

2. If there has been relatively little conjecture in the speaker's mind, らしい is almost the same as the hearsay expression そうだ1.

(⇨ そうだ1)

3. Negative conjecture is expressed by a negative predicate and らしい, as in (1).

4. Another use of らしい is as follows:

Here, らしい means likeness. That is, "XはYらしい" means that X is like the ideal model of Y. (Of course, (2) can also mean "It seems that Oki is a man.")

5. Since らしい is an い type adjective, it can also precede nouns, as in (3).

The negative version of (2) is (4).

If 大木さんは男(だ) is negated, the meaning changes.