usage - Confusion about "Seemingly not ～"

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
？／×　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

Looks like you have done your research well. You are correct with verbs only taking そうに/もない。Although そうにもない is not grammatical.

• 雨が降らなさそう　you make an assumption based on current state of the sky.



• 雨が降りそうにない　you have confidence that it wont rain (due to some extra information maybe).


• 雨が降りそうもない　you want it to rain but it seems like it wont (from extra information or from appearances)

There is another common way to express the same idea, ～みたいです。only used in the affirmative. (ie, 「～みたいじゃない」ってだめです）

• あの男の人は学生じゃないみたいです　on campus you plainly state that guy over there doesn't seem like a student.


• 雨が降らないみたいですよ　when you heard a broadcast or checked the web. よ shows your confidence here. But...


• 雨が降らないみたいですね　is similar to 降らなさそう because you are looking for agreement with ね