～らしい
seems or apparently
～らしい marks an inference based on outside information, something you heard, read, or pieced together from reliable clues. It attaches to the plain form of a verb or adjective, or directly to a noun.
It maps to English “apparently” or “it seems that”. Compare it with ～そう: 美味しそう means the cake looks delicious to your own eyes, while 美味しいらしい means you heard it is delicious.
1. Reporting what you heard or inferred
Use ～らしい to pass along information while signaling that it is secondhand, not something you confirmed yourself.
彼は来ないらしい。
“Apparently he isn’t coming.”
- 彼（かれ）= he
- は = topic marker
- 来ない（こない）= isn’t coming
- らしい = apparently, it seems
2. “Typical of”: noun + らしい
Attached to a noun, らしい can also mean that something has the typical qualities of that noun, “just like a ...”.
今日は春らしい天気だ。
“Today’s weather is typical of spring.”
- 今日（きょう）= today
- は = topic marker
- 春らしい（はるらしい）= spring-like, typical of spring
- 天気（てんき）= weather
- だ = plain copula (is)
Here nothing is being guessed, the weather really does have the character of spring. Context tells you which of the two meanings is intended.
How to form it
Plain form + らしい; for nouns and な-adjectives, attach らしい directly.
- 来る（くる）= to come → 来るらしい（くるらしい）= apparently is coming
- 忙しい（いそがしい）= busy → 忙しいらしい（いそがしいらしい）= apparently busy
- 雨（あめ）= rain → 雨らしい（あめらしい）= apparently it’s rain
Key idea
～らしい keeps a polite distance from the claim: “based on what I’ve heard or seen around, this seems to be the case”. The information comes from outside, not from your own direct experience.
Other N4 grammar
Updated .