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Definition 2024

思う

思う

Japanese

Kanji in this term
思
おも
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Verb

思う ‎(intransitive, godan conjugation, hiragana おもう, romaji omou, historical hiragana おもふ)

  1. to think, to deem
    私 (わたし)は田中先生 (たなかせんせい)のクラスはとても面白 (おもしろ)かったと思 (おも)います。
    Watashi wa Tanaka-sensei no kurasu wa totemo omoshirokatta to omoimasu.
    I think that Tanaka-sensei's classes were very interesting.

Usage notes

A pattern with which this verb is often used is:

(私は + ) [sentence] + (と + 思う /思っている).
  • When ending in 思う, the pattern expresses opinions which the speaker holds at the time of speaking.
  • When ending in 思っている, the pattern expresses opinions which the speaker has had since sometime in the past.

While both 思う (omou) and synonym 考える ‎(kangaeru) can be used to mean to think, omou may include more emotional and subjective overtones, whereas kangaeru implies more analytic and objective thought.[1]

Conjugation

Synonym

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  3. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
  4. ↑ 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13143-0

Etymology

From Old Japanese.[1][2] Appears in the Man'yōshū poetry compilation, completed circa 759. There are two main theories for its ultimate derivation:

  • May be cognate with 面 ‎(omo, “face”), from the sense of how one's emotions appear on one's face.[1]
  • May be cognate with 重 ‎(omo, “weight”), from the sense of weighing different options.[1] Compare similar derivations of English ponder ‎(as in “to weigh; to think”) and ponderous ‎(as in “heavy, weighty”).

Pronunciation

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