～そうにない
doesn’t look like it will
～そうにない is the negative of the appearance pattern ～そう. It is made from the verb ます-stem + そうにない and says that, judging from the current situation, something shows no sign of happening.
It maps to English “it doesn’t look like ... will” or “there’s no sign that ...”. While plain ～そう says an event looks imminent, ～そうにない says the opposite: the event looks unlikely.
Saying something appears unlikely
Use ～そうにない when the evidence in front of you suggests an event will not occur.
雨は降りそうにない。
“It doesn’t look like it will rain.”
- 雨（あめ）= rain
- は = topic marker
- 降りそうにない（ふりそうにない）= shows no sign of falling
It is also common with things that are dragging on and clearly will not be done in time.
仕事は今日中に終わりそうにない。
“The work doesn’t look like it will be finished today.”
- 仕事（しごと）= work
- は = topic marker
- 今日中に（きょうじゅうに）= within today
- 終わりそうにない（おわりそうにない）= doesn’t look like it will end
How to form it
Verb ます-stem + そうにない
- 降る（ふる）= to fall (rain) → 降りそうにない（ふりそうにない）= doesn’t look like it will rain
- 終わる（おわる）= to end → 終わりそうにない（おわりそうにない）= doesn’t look like it will end
- 来る（くる）= to come → 来そうにない（きそうにない）= doesn’t look like (someone) will come
Key idea
～そうにない is a strong “no sign of it”. You look at the situation (the clear sky, the mountain of unfinished work) and conclude that the event is just not going to happen.
Built on the same stem
Updated .