～そうだ

～そうだ reports information you got from another source, something you heard, read, or were told. It attaches to the plain form of a verb, adjective, or noun + だ.

In English it corresponds to “I hear that ...”, “they say ...”, or “reportedly”. The speaker is passing the information along, not vouching for it personally.

1. Reporting something you heard

Put そうだ／そうです after a plain-form sentence to mark it as secondhand information.

2. Naming the source with によると

～そうだ often pairs with ～によると (“according to ...”) to say where the information came from.

Hearsay ～そうだ vs appearance ～そうだ

Japanese has a second そうだ that attaches to the verb stem and means “looks like”: 雨が降りそうだ = “it looks like rain” (your own observation), while 雨が降るそうだ = “I hear it will rain” (someone told you). The plain form before そうだ is what signals hearsay.

How to form it

Plain form + そうだ／そうです

• 来る（くる）= to come → 来るそうだ（くるそうだ）= I hear (he) is coming
• 高い（たかい）= expensive → 高いそうです（たかいそうです）= I hear it is expensive
• 学生だ（がくせいだ）= is a student → 学生だそうだ（がくせいだそうだ）= I hear (she) is a student

Key idea

～そうだ after a plain form is a quotation of the world: you are relaying what you heard or read, not giving your own impression.