Oh, you actually can say the short version, 'though it isn't that correct. It's more used in spoken German because of laziness but in the end it is like in Entlish. You can say: It seems bigter - Es scheint größer It seems to be bigger - Es scheint größer zu sein As in English you can drop that "zu sein" ("to be") but it's obviously better to write the full sentence. I.mean, you could also mean "it seems to become bigger" - "es scheint größer zu werden", but thats more specific. just another note: please don't write "scheint" with a captial s, that's wrong^^"