Grammar JLPT Level N3 - Lesson 3

Structure of そうだ:

Verb + そう + だ
［い］Adjective + そう + だ
Noun + だ + そう + だ
［な］Adjective + だ + そう + だ

Details about そうだ:

The auxiliary verb そうだ has two primary functions in Japanese. It can convey one of the following things:
Hearsay: 伝聞(でんぶん) - Highlighting things that have been heard from other people.
Appearance: 様態(ようたい) - Highlighting the way that things 'appear', or 'seem'.
The appearance nuance is covered in another lesson, so we will focus on hearsy in this grammar point. When used to repeat statements that have been heard from other people/sources, そうだ (or そうです) will be paired with the plain form of a verb or い-Adjective, or a noun/な-Adjective followed by だ.

この種類(しゅるい)の鳥(とり)はよく鳴(な)くそうだ。
I heard that this bird chirps a lot.
次(つぎ)の患者(かんじゃ)さんは酷(ひど)い事故(じこ)にあったそうです。
I heard that the next patient was in a bad accident.
あそこから見(み)る夕日(ゆうひ)は綺麗(きれい)だそうです。
I heard that the sunset that you can see from there is beautiful.
先輩(せんぱい)は明日(あした)も仕事(しごと)だそうだ。
I heard that senpai will be working tomorrow.

そうだ always implies that the speaker is not 100% certain about the validity of the information that they are conveying. Due to this, it does not sound as confident as other expressions, like ようだ.

そうだ

Usage Notes for そうだ:

In order to avoid confusion between the そうだ that is used for repeating information, and the そうだ that is used for making observations, the following differences will need to be memorized.
Verbs -
降(ふ)るそうだ - Unaltered verb, そうだ that is repeating information.
降(ふ)りそうだ - conjunctive form, そうだ that is used for making observations.
い-Adjectives -寒(さむ)いそうだ - Unaltered adjective, そうだ that is repeating information.
寒(さむ)そうだ - い removed, そうだ that is used for making observations.
Nouns and な-Adjectives -綺麗(きれい)だそうだ - だ is used before そうだ. This is repeating information.
綺麗(きれい)そうだ - No だ between the な-Adjective and そうだ. This is making an observation.