"Who does he look like?"
Translation:Vem ser han ut som?
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1006
The question is whether it implies the Dative in the English language. In German it does, of course, but this does not mean that it's the very same in English. A problem when you do not have a detailed grammatical system that allows the obfuscate distinguishing between cases, as it used to be the case in OE.
Vem ser ut som han? means 'Who looks like him?' so that changes the meaning drastically. Han ser ut som vem? is the kind of question created by word order that you can do in English too, it would be 'He looks like who?' in English. I guess you could also say Som vem ser han ut? 'Like who does he look?' but it sounds a bit strained to me.
I am not Arnauti :), but I have some hints.
If the verb comes before the subject, then the subject splits the verb and the particle:
Tycker du om honom? (question)
Naturligtvis tycker jag om honom. (v2-rule)
If there is an adverbial after the verb, then it splits the verb and the particle:
Jag tycker inte om honom. (inte)
Du tycker kanske om mig. (kanske).
If the verb comes before the subject and you have an adverbial inside the sentence, then both the subject and the adverbial are placed between the verb and the particle:
Tycker du kanske om honom? (question + kanske)
Naturligtvis tycker jag inte om honom. (V2-rule + inte).
As you know, the verb normally comes second: han ser ut som. And for questions, you move the verb to first position instead.
But with phrasal verbs, you only move the first word of the phrasal verb - i.e. the word that's actually a verb in its own right.
So if you have han ser ut som, you move the first word ser of the phrasal verb ser ut som in front, and end up with ser han ut som.
742
Isn't "lik som" also "looks like"? I am so confused by all this. It feels like every time I figure out a rule there is a rule just to contradict it.