見える (look / seem)

見える used with an adverbial — [adj-く / adv-に / noun-に] + 見える — to mean 'to look / appear X.' 幸せに見える ('looks happy'), 黒く見える ('looks black'), 病人に見える ('looks like a patient'). Distinct from being X: 黒く見えた ('looked black, but maybe wasn't') vs 黒かった ('was black'). Distinct from the standalone verb 見える (visibility) and from the [adj-そうだ] evidential pattern. Parallel to ~に聞こえる ('sounds').