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I'm doing a translation for a comic and I'm having trouble deciding between
ーそうだ and ーようだ.

The specific context I'm looking at is a character exploring a seemingly
abandoned building, but eventually sees something wandering off in the
distance and mutters something like, "Huh, looks like this place isn't empty
after all."

I'm thinking that ーようだ/みたいだ is correct because, to my understanding, it
implies the most amount of confidence when expressing conjecture, usually
based on visual evidence, but I've also seen そうだ be used for similar contexts.
Is the use of ーようだ here correct? Also, can the copula verb だ be dropped in
casual feminine speech like, ーようだね to ーようね or ーみたいだね to ーみたいね? Thanks.
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2022-12-30T06:44:12.603
97859
2022-12-30T12:50:50.497
55146
question
word-choice nuances usage
Choosing between ーそうだ and ーようだ
Simply considering 'looks like this place isn't empty', I guess what you are
thinking are:

  1. ここは空じゃ **なさ** そうだ
  2. ここは空じゃ **ない** そうだ
  3. ここは空じゃないようだ

1 and 3 work as translation for the phrase (putting the exact wording aside).
2 means hearsay - "I've heard this place is not empty"

As for the last point, yes, そうだね/ようだね can be そうね/ようね, which sounds feminine.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-30T12:50:50.497
97863
2022-12-30T12:50:50.497
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97859
answer