Sembra che + subjunctive
We use “sembra che” to express a personal opinion and not a fact. The structure is pretty simple since we don’t need to conjugate the verb sembrare. We just say sembra che + subjunctive.
Of course, the verb sembrare can also be in the past and might be preceded by mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi, gli.
As we said in previous lessons, we can use sembrare with the four types of subjunctive: the presente, imperfetto, passato, and trapassato.
If you need to review when to use each of the four subjunctives, we recommend having a quick look at the Italian grammar lessons 203 (Present regular), 204 (Present irregular), 208 (Past), 209 (Imperfect), and 210 (Trapassato).
Now, let’s look at examples with the four of them.
Sembra che + congiuntivo presente
Sembra che lei abbia ragione.
It seems like she’s right.
Non mi sembra che tu stia bene.
It doesn’t seem to me that you’re fine.
Sembra che loro vogliano andare in Germania.
It seems that they want to go to Germany.
Sembra che + congiuntivo imperfetto
Sembrava che tu volessi andare via.
It seemed that you wanted to go away.
Non mi sembra che voi steste bene.
It doesn’t seem to me that you were fine.
A me sinceramente sembrava che lui dicesse la verità.
Honestly, it seemed to me that he was saying the truth.
Sembra che + congiuntivo passato
Sembra che Antonella e Marco abbiano portato via tutto.
It seems that Antonella and Marco took everything away.
Non sembra che tu sia stato tanto gentile con lei.
It doesn’t seem that you were very nice to her.
Sembra che il cane abbia fatto un disastro.
It seems that the dog made a mess.
Sembra che + congiuntivo trapassato
Sembrava che ti fossi divertita l’anno scorso.
It seemed that you had had fun last year.
Mi sembrava che avessero detto di no.
It seemed to me they had said no.
Ci sembrava che foste riusciti a finire il progetto.
It seemed to us that you had managed to finish the project.
Learn more
Here are some more cases in which Subjunctive is used. Learn how they work for becoming truly Italian!
Qualunque, chiunque, ovunque + Subjunctive
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