Confusion about "Seemingly not ～"?

Question

So there are several ways to express something is "seemingly not ～": > * ～なさそう * ～そうにない * ～そうもない * ～そうにもない (is this one even real?) I was always taught ～なさそう in my Japanese classes, and it was not until I heard one of the other ones that I ever become confused about them. After doing a little research on this, it seems that adjectives can only take ～なさそう. ex. > ○ 料理がおいしくなさそう<br/> > ？／∗　料理がおいしそうにない but that verbs can take any of the forms > ○ 雨が　降らなさそう／降りそう（に・も・にも？）ない So, my questions are a) is the above reasoning correct, and b) what are the differences/nuances of the latter three forms? Someone please set me straight on this; it's been bugging me for a couple years.

Answer 1

You have it a little bit switched around.

NA+Adj・I-Adj・MASU STEM+そう is used to express one's judgement on a state of affairs based on something seen, heard, or done by the speaker. This is not usually used to refer to attributes that can be identified by sight alone, such as something being pretty.

The negative form for ～そう (seems ~) is either adding ~なさそう or そうではない (and じゃない). This can be attached to all ADJ+ない forms:

高くなさそうだ・高そうではない - does not seem expensive

便利じゃなさそうだ・便利そうではない - does not seem convenient

Verbs do not usually take ~なさそう, and will commonly take MASU STEM+そう+に・も・にもない:

降りそうにない - does not look like it will rain (そう works like a NA-Adj, so perhaps " does not exist in a "will rainy" way)

降りそうもない - does not look like it will rain (there's not even a "it seems like it will rain" ??)

降りそうにもない - does not look like it will rain (does not even exist in a way that seems like it will rain ??)

One exception is ない:

お金がなさそうだ - does not seem to have money

I cannot seem to find any information about how these inflections change the meaning, if at all, except for my guesses above. Assuming you find yourself writing these phrases in the future, I would try to enlist the help of a bilingual proofreader to explain if and how any of these forms differ from each other.

Nouns can only follow the ~なさそう, using the negation ではない:

学生ではなさそうだ - does not seen like a student