How to use ～ようです、～そうです、～みたいです
Can you use these phrases depending on the situation?
(A)～ようです/ようだ
(B)～そうです/～そうだ。
(C)～みたいです/みたいだ
I often think that you can write the right Japanese, but it doesn't go with the situation.
I'll give you an example and explain it to you.
(1) You went to a supermarket to buy a chocolate, but the chocolate isn't on the shelf and you didn't ask anybody who works there "Do you have a chocolates?"
In this case, you can say "チョコレートは売り切れのようだ/売り切れみたいです。".
You can't say "チョコレートは売り切れたそうです。"
When you ask somebody and the person tells you "we don't have it", you can use all of phrases (A), (B) and (C).
(2) When you are walking, someone talk to you "hi, long time no see, do you remember me?"
（Actually, you saw the person five years ago, but you forgot seeing the person.）
In this case, can you tell the difference between (2-1) and (2-2) ?
(2-1): その人は、私のことを知っているようだ。
(2-2): その人は、私のことを知っているそうだ。
If you say to yourself, which one is better?
Actually, you can say both (2-1) and (2-2), but the timing when you use is a slight different.
You can't say (2-2) before the person tells you the details like "I saw you five years ago...I was looking for a station and asked you, you was wearing black hat and .....at that time".
(3) You work in a big company, so there are a lot of people who you don't know in the company.
Two people Aさん and Bさん are talking about you on the hallway.
You don't know them and they don't notice that you are standing close to them.
You can hear them.
In this case, you can say "彼らは私のことを知っているようだ/みたいだ".
You can't say "彼らは私のことを知っているそうです".
彼らは私のことを知っているそうです。 means another person tells you that they've already known you.
My explanation is not good and there might be exceptions.
Be careful.
Note:"売り切れそうです/そうだ" and "知ってそうです/そうだ" have a different meaning.
I'm going to tell you another entry someday.
