見える・みえる

Verb (Group 2) (Basic ㊦ 243)

Someone or something is passively/spontaneously visible.

Equivalent: Be visible; (can) see; look ~

私（に）は遠くの物がよく見える・見えます。: To me distant objects are very visible.
窓から（は）海が見える・見えます。: From the window the ocean is visible.
今日は山が近く見える・見えます。: Today the mountains look near.
私には木の上の小さな鳥が見えた。: I could see small birds on the tree.
東京タワーからは東京の町がよく見える。: From Tokyo Tower you can get a good view of the towns of Tokyo.
あの人は年よりずっと若く見える。: He looks much younger than his age.
女の人は夜奇麗に見える。: Women look beautiful at night.
中島さんは学生に見える。: Mr. Nakajima looks like a student.

Notes

1. 見える can mean 'look ~' if it is preceded by the adverbial form of an Adjective い as in Example (c) or of an Adjective な as in Example (d) or by a Nounに as in Example (e).

2. 見える can be used as a polite version of 来る 'come' as in:

お母さん、お客さんが見えたよ。
Mom, we have company!

学会には上田先生も見えた。
Literally: To the academic meeting appeared Professor Ueda, too. (= Professor Ueda also attended the academic conference.)

見える can be used as an honorific polite verb because it is a more indirect reference to a superior's act of 'coming'. In other words, the speaker is referring to a superior's appearance as if it were a spontaneous, natural phenomenon of 'visibility'.

3. A visible object is marked by が, not by を.

【Related Expression】

見える is different from the regular potential form of 見る, i.e., 見られる, in that 見える indicates that something or someone is passively visible regardless of the volition of the speaker; 見られる, on the other hand, indicates that the speaker or the subject of the sentence can see something or someone actively rather than passively. Thus,

[1]

僕は目が見えない/*見られない。
I'm blind.

[2]

テレビを買ったからテレビが見られる/*見える。
Because I bought a TV I can now watch TV.

[3]

あの映画はどこで見られます/*見えますか。
Where can we see the movie?

[4]

よく見えない/*見られないからステージの近くに行こう。
We can't see it well, so let's go closer to the stage.

[5]

隣に高いビルが立ったので山が見え/見られなくなった。
visible any more/we can't see the mountains any more.

Note that in [5] both 見える and 見られる are possible, depending on how the speaker perceives the visible object; if he thinks that the situation is beyond his control and has to give up looking at the mountains, he uses 見える; if not, he uses 見られる.