Good day to everyone.

I've been wondering on how you say 'looks like' or 'appears like' but not on
terms of similarity. It is asking for a description or appearance on an
object.

For example: "What does your sister look like?" "What does your new home look
like?"

I've been looking around and usually I only find the word ~みたい or よう, but I
think ~みたい and よう is to express similarity or things that are still abstract
or used in prediction.

I was thinking of using どんな見える but I'm not sure. Like あなたの新しい家はどんな見えるんですか。

Is that correct? Or is there any other preferred word to ask it? Thank you in
advance.
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2015-01-09T07:26:05.660
21222
2015-01-15T09:37:25.673
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question
grammar
How to ask the 'looks like' or appearance of something?
Some possibilities (although many more exist):

  * Use 見{み}た目{め}: "見た目はどう(なん)ですか？"

  * If you want to use 見える{みえる}, combine it with ふう (from 風{ふう}): "どんなふうに見える？" (or "どういうふうに見える？")

  * A bit more vague and subjective, bot very commonly heard is 感じ{かんじ}: "どんな感じですか？". Also goes well with 見{み}た目{め}: "見た目はどんな感じですか？"
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2015-01-09T07:52:14.450
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2015-01-09T08:07:24.483
2015-01-09T08:07:24.483
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answer
Saying the seemingly simple sentence "What does (something) look like?" in
Japanese appears to be very difficult for English-speaking Japanese-learners
as far as my own experience with them goes.

The major reason for that, according to none other than my own observation, is
that they will try to use a verb or verb phrase that sounds like "to look" or
"to look like" and therefore, will tend to end up using 「[見]{み}える」.
Unfortunately, that is a word that is **_not_** used in the natural-sounding
ways to say "What does (something) look like?"

Some learners might argue that verb phrases such as 「～～ように見える」 and 「～～みたいに見える」
are often used by native speakers. They actually are, but here is the
important difference. In OP's question, **_"What does your sister look
like?"_** and **_"What does your new home look like?"_** clearly are questions
asked by **someone who has not seen** the sister or the new home,
respectively.

If one used 「どう見える」,「どのように見える」, etc., it would be a question asking for
someone's impression or opinion of a thing that he surely has seen before or
even that he is standing in front of right now.

This is why native speakers do not use 「見える」 in saying "What does your sister
look like?" or "What does your new home look like?"

Natural ways to say those would be:

「お[姉]{ねえ}さん（or [妹]{いもうと}さん）って、[外見]{がいけん}はどんな[感]{かん}じなの？」

「お姉さんは[見]{み}た[目]{め}はどんな感じなんですか。」

「[新]{あたら}しいおうちってどんな[外観]{がいかん}なの？」

「新しいおうちの外観はどんな感じなんですか。」
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2015-01-15T02:27:11.833
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2015-01-15T09:37:25.673
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answer