みたい vs らしい

This is in continuation to the そう vs よう post Lena asked about.

みたい and らしい feels a little more complicated because there are also many ways they can be used.

To keep it simple, みたい and らしい are both more colloquial and similar to the relationship between そう and よう. So, みたい is used when voicing your opinion based on what you see (somewhat like そう but equating みたい with そう would make things very confusing because they are not the same). For example, everyone at work is going to lunch together and you don’t know if the boss is joining. At noon, when everyone is leaving for lunch, you see the boss getting ready to leave his desk as well, so you can say, 行くみたい(です). Or when you see the boss shouting in the phone, you can say, 怒っているみたい(です).

On the other hand, らしい is voicing information you heard from somebody else (somewhat like よう but again, equating らしい with よう would make things very confusing because they are not the same). For example, everyone at work is going to lunch together but you don’t know if the boss is joining. You heard through the grapevine that the boss always joins the team for lunch, so you can say, 行くらしい. Or you hear that the boss is upset, so you can say, 怒っているらしい.

Then it gets more confusing. Even for information you heard, you can say 行くみたい(です) and 怒っているみたい(です). The difference between that and the use of らしい above is that, みたい suggests a more trustworthy piece of information, while らしい suggests more of a hearsay and that the accuracy is fairly low or uncertain. With the examples above, everyone at work is going to lunch together but you don’t know if the boss is joining. You hear from a colleague that the boss is coming, so you can say, 行くみたい(です). Or you hear from a colleague who just came out of the boss’ office that the boss is upset, you can say, 怒っているみたい(です). * Here, みたい is like よう since both suggest information of more credibility.

That’s for the usage with verbs. For nouns, it’s not too different. I mean the confusion part.

Again, to put it simply, みたい is voicing your opinion based on what you see. For example, you see your neighbor drive a Mercedes Benz and always wears designer clothes, you can say お金持ちみたい(です).

On the other hand, らしい is, again, talking about information you heard somewhere else. For example, you hear from the gossipers nearby that your neighbor is very rich. You can say お金持ちらしい.

The point here is that, らしい usually suggests information of low or uncertain credibility.

Now, let’s make it more confusing.

みたい can also be used to refer to someone who behaves like someone they are not. For example, you know your neighbor doesn’t make much money but drives a Mercedes Benz and always wears designer clothes. You can say お金持ちみたい(な生活です).

On the other hand, らしい can be used to refer to someone who behaves the way they are perceived to. For example, you know your neighbor makes tons of money and he drives a Mercedes Benz and always wears designer clothes. You can say お金持ちらしい(生活です).

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