I think – to omou

In this session of Japanese with Jenny, I’m going to be talking about how to use “to omou“, which translates roughly to “I think…“. Since Japanese speech style tends to be more indirect than Western speech style, using “to omou” becomes relatively common. The sentence pattern is:

[noun + da] OR [direct form adj.] OR [direct form verb] + to omou.

Of course, perfective tense can be used for the noun/adj/verb as well. The most important thing is that the direct form must always be used before to omou. Some examples:

Hana da to omou. || I think it’s a flower.
Takai to omou. || I think it’s expensive.
Nihongo o benkyou suru to omou. || I think I’ll study Japanese.

Questions words like nani or itsu plus ka can also be used before “to omou”, as long as the entire predicate is in direct form. In this case, “to omou” would translate to “I wonder…”. So for example:

Nani ga ii ka to omou. || I wonder what is good.
Kaigi wa itsu ka to omotte imasu. || I’ve been wondering when the meeting is.

The -tai form verb with “to omou”, which expresses your wish, is also regularly used together. Some examples:

Nihon de ryoko sitai to omou. || I think I want to travel in Japan.
Takai desu kedo, kono hon o kaitai to omou. || Though it’s expensive, I think I want to buy this book.

But when we use a direct consultative-form verb before “to omou”, it expresses intention. Remember, the consultative-form verb by itself usually means that you’ll probably perform the action of that verb. So for example:

Ichi nichi tyuu tenisu o siyou to omou. || I think that I’m going to play tennis all day.
Sono sushiya de tabeyou to omou. || I think that I’m going to eat at that sushi place.

Now let’s turn the direct consultative-form verb into a question by adding ka after the verb, but before “to omou”. Much like the previous pattern with question word + ka, it means that the activity is still questionable or in the process of debating. For example:

Kare wa koen ni ikou ka to omou. || I wonder if he’ll go to the park.
Hana o ageyou ka to omou.  || I wonder if I’ll give flowers.

Finally, a comparison of all the different patterns:

Nihongo o benkyou suru to omou. || I think I’ll study Japanese.
Nihongo o benkyou sitai to  omou. || I think I want to study Japanese.
Nihongo o benkyou siyou to omou. || I think that I’m going to study Japanese.
Nihongo o benkyou siyou ka to omou. || I wonder if I’ll study Japanese.