# 思う
## Japanese

* Kanji in this term
* 思
* おも Grade: 2
* kun'yomi
* Alternative spellings
* 想う (somewhat literary) 念う (literary) 惟う (literary) 憶う (literary) 懐う (literary) 以う (rare) 意う (rare)

### Etymology

⟨omo$_2$pu⟩ → */əməpu/ → /omoɸu/ → /omou/
From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *əməp-. First attested in the Kojiki of 712 CE. Also appears in the Man'yōshū poetry compilation, completed c. 759 CE. 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.
* May be cognate with 重 (omo, “weight”), from the sense of weighing different options. Compare similar derivations of English ponder (as in “to weigh; to think”) and ponderous (as in “heavy, weighty”). However, this runs into problems, since the ancestor of this form is reconstructed as *onpo- (“heavy”).

### Pronunciation

* (Tokyo) おもう [òmóꜜù] (Nakadaka –)
* IPA: [o̞mo̞ɯ̟]
* Audio:(file)
* Tokyo pitch accent of conjugated forms of 「思う」
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary :
| Stem forms ||||
| Terminal (終止形) Attributive (連体形) | 思う | おもう | [òmóꜜù] |
| Imperative (命令形) | 思え | おもえ | [òmóꜜè] |
| Key constructions ||||
| Passive | 思われる | おもわれる | [òmówáréꜜrù] |
| Causative | 思わせる | おもわせる | [òmówáséꜜrù] |
| Potential | 思える | おもえる | [òmóéꜜrù] |
| Volitional | 思おう | おもおー | [òmóóꜜò] |
| Negative | 思わない | おもわない | [òmówáꜜnàì] |
| Negative perfective | 思わなかった | おもわなかった | [òmówáꜜnàkàttà] |
| Formal | 思います | おもいます | [òmóímáꜜsù] |
| Perfective | 思った | おもった | [òmóꜜttà] |
| Conjunctive | 思って | おもって | [òmóꜜttè] |
| Hypothetical conditional | 思えば | おもえば | [òmóꜜèbà] |

### Verb

思(おも)う • (omou) intransitive godan (stem 思(おも)い (omoi), past 思(おも)った (omotta))
* to think, to deem, to imagine, ponder, to speculate
* 思う: (と〜) to think that
    私(わたし)は田(た)中(なか)先(せん)生(せい)のクラスはとても面(おも)白(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 Prof. Tanaka's classes were very interesting.
* to long for, to yearn for
    故(ふる)郷(さと)を思(おも)う
       furusato o omou
       to think of one's hometown

#### Usage notes

A pattern with which this verb is often used is:
    (私は + ) [sentence] + (と + 思う/思っている).
    [sentence] + (と + 私は + 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
* 思っている is also used to express opinions by someone other than the speaker.
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.

#### Conjugation

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms") :
| Mizenkei ("imperfective") | 思わ | おもわ | omowa |
| Ren’yōkei ("continuative") | 思い | おもい | omoi |
| Shūshikei ("terminal") | 思う | おもう | omou |
| Rentaikei ("attributive") | 思う | おもう | omou |
| Kateikei ("hypothetical") | 思え | おもえ | omoe |
| Meireikei ("imperative") | 思え | おもえ | omoe |
| Key constructions ||||
| Passive | 思われる | おもわれる | omowareru |
| Causative | 思わせる 思わす | おもわせる おもわす | omowaseru omowasu |
| Potential | 思える | おもえる | omoeru |
| Volitional | 思おう | おもおう | omoō |
| Negative | 思わない | おもわない | omowanai |
| Negative continuative | 思わず | おもわず | omowazu |
| Formal | 思います | おもいます | omoimasu |
| Perfective | 思った | おもった | omotta |
| Conjunctive | 思って | おもって | omotte |
| Hypothetical conditional | 思えば | おもえば | omoeba |
Stem forms :
| Irrealis (未然形) | 思は | おもは | omofa |
| Continuative (連用形) | 思ひ | おもひ | omofi |
| Terminal (終止形) | 思ふ | おもふ | omofu |
| Attributive (連体形) | 思ふ | おもふ | omofu |
| Realis (已然形) | 思へ | おもへ | omofe |
| Imperative (命令形) | 思へ | おもへ | omofe |
| Key constructions ||||
| Negative | 思はず | おもはず | omofazu |
| Contrasting conjunction | 思へど | おもへど | omofedo |
| Causal conjunction | 思へば | おもへば | omofeba |
| Conditional conjunction | 思はば | おもはば | omofaba |
| Past tense (firsthand knowledge) | 思ひき | おもひき | omofiki |
| Past tense (secondhand knowledge) | 思ひけり | おもひけり | omofikeri |
| Perfect tense (conscious action) | 思ひつ | おもひつ | omofitu |
| Perfect tense (natural event) | 思ひぬ | おもひぬ | omofinu |
| Perfect-continuative tense | 思へり 思ひたり | おもへり おもひたり | omoferi omofitari |
| Volitional | 思はむ | おもはむ | omofamu |

#### Synonyms

* 考(かんが)える (kangaeru)

#### Derived terms

* 慮(おもんぱか)る (omonpakaru, “(formal) to consider carefully”)

### References

* 1 2 3 4 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
* 1 2 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
* ↑ “思・想・憶・懐”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
* ↑ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
* ↑ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN