They’re an ergative verb pair. As in one can be seen as “I look at him.” and the other as “He looks pretty.”. In English such pairs of verbs are usually the same verb, but “raise” and “rise” are a prominent example where they are different, but “lower” and “lower” are the same yet again.
But, a simpler way to approximate it is to simply say that “見る” means “to see” and “見える” means “to be visible”, as in the opposite direction, but such contrasts are often a different verb in Japanese as I said. For instance “窓が開く。” means “The window opens.” but “私が窓を開ける。” means “I open the window.”, both using a different verb that shares the same root.
Likewise “私が窓を見る。” means “I see the window. And “窓が見える。” means “The window is visible.” but the catch is here that very often one will encounter “私に窓が見える。” this also means “I see the window.” but more so means “The window is visible to me.” and has a different nuance, similar to “I can see the window.”, and of course “窓がきれいに見える。” is also a common one for “The window looks clean.” for instance.
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They’re an ergative verb pair. As in one can be seen as “I look at him.” and the other as “He looks pretty.”. In English such pairs of verbs are usually the same verb, but “raise” and “rise” are a prominent example where they are different, but “lower” and “lower” are the same yet again.
But, a simpler way to approximate it is to simply say that “見る” means “to see” and “見える” means “to be visible”, as in the opposite direction, but such contrasts are often a different verb in Japanese as I said. For instance “窓が開く。” means “The window opens.” but “私が窓を開ける。” means “I open the window.”, both using a different verb that shares the same root.
Likewise “私が窓を見る。” means “I see the window. And “窓が見える。” means “The window is visible.” but the catch is here that very often one will encounter “私に窓が見える。” this also means “I see the window.” but more so means “The window is visible to me.” and has a different nuance, similar to “I can see the window.”, and of course “窓がきれいに見える。” is also a common one for “The window looks clean.” for instance.
Cure Dolly’s [video](https://youtu.be/ELk1dqaEmyk) on self-move vs. other-move verbs can help you here.
Here’s my answer from the last time this was asked
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/12r0oyk/comment/jgsad4m/?context=3
Please do searches on the feed, this is an extremely common question that’s answered at least weekly. A search for 見える would give lots of info for you
I can see, vs I see.