Si direbbe che abbia molti amici.

English Translation

It looks like she’s got a lot of friends.

Would it be better to say “It is said she has a lot of friends”? Direbbe doesn’t seem right as “looks like”.

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Hi @Floria7, good question.

This may be confusing, but the Italian here is using a conditional mood to signify a sense of doubt, or to reduce the certainty of the statement.

“Si direbbe che abbia molti amici” means literally “You would/could say he/she has lots of friends”.

You may think there is a missing part to the sentence, like “… but it is not a certain thing”. Or, given what I see, I would say she has lots of friends.

So, “it looks like” or “apparently” are introducing the same level of uncertainty in the sentence as “si direbbe”.

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Ho capito, grazie @mike-lima

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