Sembrerebbe un bravo ragazzo.

English Translation

He looks like a good boy.

Should this have a different translation if “sembra un bravo ragazzo” is also “he looks like a good boy” ?

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I see what they mean but personally I read it as “He seems like a nice guy”.

Of late quite a few of the English (from Italian) phrases could do with a little correcting but I get the gist and add a note or two.

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I agree with @Floria7’s translation but I’m not sure why the sentence uses the condizionale. Studying vocabulary in a sentence context is better than insolated words or phrases but it sure would be helpful to see the previous and next sentences sometimes.

Would “pare” work here as well? “Parere” translates as “seem, appear, look”, but for some reason “parere” is not synonymous with “sembrare” at least in Reverso. Probably because they have somewhat different meanings.

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Sembrerebbe sounds much better, più elegante;-)

I found this comment posted by a native Italian speaker on iTalki: “These two words have, more or less, same meaning, but ‘‘sembrare’’ is most used, all above in a modern italian language. Instead, ‘‘parere’’ today is a south of italy’s dialect form, or you can read this verb in old history and poem’s book.”

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Grazie per questo DB!

“Pare un bravo ragazzo”, “Parrebbe un bravo ragazzo” have the same meaning as the version with “sembrare”. Maybe the “sembrare” versions feel a bit more “plain”.

The use of the conditional here suggests that the speaker is not entirely sure about the truth of the statement. An implied continuation would be “ma non si sa mai…” (but you never know).

Abour Reverso, I am not sure: but “Parere” is also a noun that means “opinion”. Perhaps that’s why it is not listed as a synonymous?

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When you scroll down for the synonyms in Reverso you will see the verbs section. That is where I looked.