彼は私の兄のようだ。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

He’s like a brother to me.

I’m confused about why this isn’t ‘he’s like my brother’.

#2

@Daniel42
The Japanese and English sentences don’t match. Please note that they are sourced originally from the notorious Tanaka Corpus, according to Tatoeba.

彼は私の兄のようだ。= He seems to be my elder brother./ He is probably my brother. – e.g., The speaker is asked by police to identify the victim or offender of a crime case. The speaker is not 100% sure whether the person on the crime video is his/her elder brother.

He’s like a brother to me. = 私にとって彼は兄のような存在です。or 私にとって彼は兄も同然です。- i.e. He is not an actual brother of the speaker. But he is so important to the speaker and the speaker treats him like a blood brother.

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