I want to say how something strikes me through one sense — looks, sounds, tastes, comes across.
序 · The move
1Pick the channel verb for how you are judging it (看 by sight, 聽 by ear, 吃 by taste, 說 in the saying, 做 in the doing).Am I reporting an impression through a sense, not an action that happens?
2Attach 起來 to the verb, then state the verdict as an adjective or short clause.Does it read as comes across as X / seems X? If it reads as starts to, that is V起來2; if as up off the ground, V起來1.
3Keep the thing being judged as topic up front; the verdict is the speaker's read, not a fact yet confirmed.Could the verdict be wrong on closer look? If it must be literally true, drop 起來 and state it flat.
例 · Examples
1你今天today看起來look(s) / come across by sight很累very tired。
Same two characters, split job. V起來2 films an action kicking off (笑起來 = burst out laughing). V起來4 reports a verdict through a sense (看起來累 = looks tired); nothing happens, an impression surfaces. Ask whether anything starts; if only a read forms, it is sense 4.
好像 guesses from anywhere (好像下雨了 = seems it rained, on any hunch). V起來4 names the channel the guess came through (聽起來 = by what I hear, 看起來 = by what I see). 好像 is the bare resemblance; V起來4 pins it to a sense.
是…的 asserts a settled fact about a past event (他是昨天走的). V起來4 offers a present impression open to revision (他看起來走了 = looks like he left). One is confirmed, the other is read off the surface.
✗ 你今天累看起來。 → ✓ 你今天看起來很累。 (起來 binds to the sense verb; the verdict comes after.)
✗ 這個菜吃起來。 → ✓ 這個菜吃起來很香。 (V起來4 needs the verdict stated; it cannot end on 起來.)
✗ 看起來他是好人是真的。 → ✓ 他看起來是好人。 (the read is not asserted as fact; drop the truth-claim tail.)
English looks/sounds/seems puts the verdict adjective straight after the verb (looks tired), so learners drop 起來 and say 看很累, or read 看起來 as physically looking up and miss the it-comes-across sense.