There are some expressions hard to distinguish in Japanese.

「らしい」「みたい」and「ぽい」are also one of them. Those phrases are use to telling a noun is looks/sounds/seems something. How to use them? Let's learn together!

【らしい】

[らしい] can be added after a noun and make it an adjective (いadjective). When you put [らしい] after a noun, it tells that the subject fits the stereotype of the noun.

For example, when you say「彼女はとても女性らしい」, it means “she is very feminine”.

【みたい】

[みたい] can be used with a noun to make the it an adjective (なadjective). You can use when the noun is not same as the adjective has been described.

For example,「彼は子どもみたいだ」means “He is not a child but childish”.

【ぽい】

When a noun has [ぽい] , you need to check what the noun is. If the noun is same as the adjective, it tells positive feelings. However, if not, it has some negative feelings.

For example, if you tell「あなたは女っぽいですね」to a girl, it’ll give her fine feeling. But if you tell this to a boy,  he’ll be mad.

Basically, [ぽい] is used in negative way.

■ NIHONGO QUIZ ■

Which is the correct word to fill in the blank?

冬なのに暖かくて、今日は [______] です。

[A] 春らしい

[B] 春みたい

⬇︎ answer...

Answer: [B]

冬なのに暖かくて、今日は春みたいです。

[らしい] can be added when the noun fit the stereotype of it own. So if the season is exactly 春(spring), you can say 「春らしい」. On the other hand, [みたい] can be added when the noun is not same same as it own. If the season is not 春(spring) but it’s like a spring, you can say 「春みたい」.