The differences between そうです ・ ようです


I'm recently revising my Japanese for the upcoming JLPT this July (I'm taking
N4), and I came up with difficulties in using these 2 items.

For example:

> 気分が良くなりました。やっとねつが (下がりました...)。

(I have to choose そうです ・ ようです to fill in the blank)

Can there be a simple way to distinguish between them? Thank you in advance !




No matter what your choice be, you can append ようです or そうです, the sentence will
be grammatically perfect. What is important here is the context.

The sentence

> 気分が良くなりました。

indicates that the speaker talks about himself, otherwise, the statement
should be less direct. Thus the fact that the fever cooled is first-hand
information from the speaker, he describes his state (that is what ようです is
for: describing a state) whereas そうです when appended to a 終止形 indicates rumor
(it seems that, it is said that, ...) not to be mixed up with the そうです that
clip itself on the 連用形 and express also a state (in the same way as ようです).

To sum up, here the speaker describes a first-hand fact, thus he can't use
そうです here, ようです is the correct answer.

EDIT: As pointed out by chocolate, よう・そう would rather connect to さがった rather
than さがりました.




No matter what your choice be, you can append ようです or そうです, the sentence will
be grammatically perfect. What is important here is the context.

The sentence

> 気分が良くなりました。

indicates that the speaker talks about himself, otherwise, the statement
should be less direct. Thus the fact that the fever cooled is first-hand
information from the speaker, he describes his state (that is what ようです is
for: describing a state) whereas そうです when appended to a 終止形 indicates rumor
(it seems that, it is said that, ...) not to be mixed up with the そうです that
clip itself on the 連用形 and express also a state (in the same way as ようです).

To sum up, here the speaker describes a first-hand fact, thus he can't use
そうです here, ようです is the correct answer.

EDIT: As pointed out by chocolate, よう・そう would rather connect to さがった rather
than さがりました.

