Not as rich as they make themselves seem (like)

[Ashraful Haque]

"These girls on Instagram aren't as rich as they make themselves seem (like)."
"Things aren't always what they seem (like)."

Is 'like' redundant in these sentences? I heard the second sentence from a native speaker.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's not just redundant; it's wrong, in my opinion.

 

[Tarheel]

Things aren't always the way they seem.

 

[jutfrank]

The first sentence is definitely wrong. If you rephrase, you can see why:

These girls seem rich.
These girls seem like rich.

The second sentence isn't wrong, though, if what is substituting for a noun phrase rather than an adjective phrase.

• seem + adjective phrase
• seem like + noun phrase
• seem (+ that) + clause