Evidence / Source Signal
How does the speaker know?
意味
A signal that marks whether information is seen, heard, inferred, assumed, reported, remembered, or generally known.
見分け方
Ask whether the sentence shows the source of knowledge.
例
apparently|I heard|it seems|they say
I heard that|apparently true|it looks like
Apparently, the train is late.
Visual guide
claim: the train is late
^
evidence layer:
how does speaker know?
I heard / it seems / apparently
Apparently, the train is late.
Evidence choices: seen -> direct I heard -> heard they say -> reported it seems -> inferred apparently -> indirect
言語別ビュー
母語では
Japanese has useful hearsay and inference markers, though not a mandatory evidential system.
電車が遅れているそうです。
I hear that the train is late.
学習中の言語では
Korean has useful inference and hearsay-like patterns, but it is not an obligatory evidential system.
비가 오나 봐요.
It seems that rain is coming.
Learners may overuse direct statements and miss common softening or inference forms.
Good transfer potential
This block behaves relatively similarly, so you can transfer intuition more safely between the two languages.