What is the meaning of sembrare in Italian?
We use sembrare when we want to give a personal opinion about something or someone.
Usually, it’s followed by an adjective (a word that describes something or someone), such as carino (nice), strano (strange), or stanco (tired).
Let’s have a look at some examples:
Sembri stanca. Stai bene?
You seem tired. Are you ok?
Loro sembrano simpatici.
They seem nice.
Tua mamma sembrava arrabbiata.
Your mum seemed angry.
How to conjugate sembrare?
Sembrare is a regular verb ending in –are such as parlare, camminare, cucinare, etc. This means its conjugation is pretty simple.
Let’s have a look at it in the present:
- Io sembro (I seem)
- Tu sembri (You seem)
- Lui/lei sembra (He/She seems)
- Noi sembriamo (We seem)
- Voi sembrate (You seem)
- Loro sembrano (They seem)
Of course, this verb can also be used in past and future tenses.
How to use mi sembra?
If we want to specify who something seems nice too, we need an indirect object pronoun.
Let’s have a look at all of them:
- mi: (to) me
- ti: (to) you
- gli/le: (to) him/ her
- ci: (to) us
- vi: (to) you
- gli: (to) them
Have a look at these two very similar sentences, but with a very slight difference:
Lei sembra tanto carina.
She seems very nice.
Lei mi sembra tanto carina.
She seems very nice to me.
Practice with Quizlet
Here's a set of flashcards and quizzes to practice this grammar topic.Sembrare: examples
Now that you know the conjugation and the role of indirect object pronouns let’s have a look at some more examples:
Ci sembra inutile parlare con il professore.
It seems useless to us to talk to the teacher.
Stasera sembravate arrabbiate.
You looked angry tonight.
Come ti è sembrato il suo fidanzato?
How did her boyfriend seem to you?
Sembri sorpreso. Non lo sapevi?
You seem surprised. Did you not know?
