Look vs. Look like...

Do you guys know the difference in when to use these two expressions?

It's actually pretty simple:

look like + noun

This cookie looks like a hamburger~!


That dog looks like a cat, weird.


He looks like an idiot.



look + adjective


You look hungry.

That cake looks delicious.

He looks stupid.


There are a few things you need to be careful about. Some nouns are ALSO adjectives so both structures are grammatically correct.

That looks like fun.

That looks fun.

Fun is both a noun AND an adjective so you can often hear it used with look or look like. The other thing is that the meaning of these two is a bit different, in my mind look is like ~sou (oishisou-look delicious, ureshisou-looks happy) but look like is like ~mitai (kodomomitai-looks like a child, bakamitai-looks like an idiot).

I hope that helps, have a good weekend!

Phil