〜ようだ

About

～ようだ ("it seems/it appears...") is formal and indicates well-informed observations (and sometimes hearsay) with a certain degree of reasoning on the part of the speaker. This is in contrast to observational statements made with ～そう, which tend to be less well-informed. In polite scenarios, だ will often become です.

～ようだ can also be used to create comparisons between two things.

E.g. このコーヒーは泥どろのようだ。"This coffee is like mud."

～ようだ can be directly attached to verbs and い-adjectives but requires の to attach to nouns, and な to attach to な-adjectives.

Summary

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  ～ようだ ("it seems...") is a formal observational marker

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  ～ようだ indicates reasoning on the part of the speaker

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  ～ようだ can be used to make comparisons