思う omou VS 想う omou (To Think)

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Omou and omou both mean to think, but they have different nuances. And the difference is just the kanji and the pronunciation is exactly the same. Just like how Mew can wear different clothes, but she's still the same person. Now, we generally use omou to mean to think and it's often used in the form of to omou, to think that. For example, Ai kawaii to omou. I think that Ai is cute. Or you can use muzukashii and say, Nihongo wa muzukashii to omou. I think that Japanese is difficult. Or you can ask for somebody's opinion by saying, Do omou?

[00:00:41]What do you think? Or if you're seeing an interesting building in Shinjuku, you can say, Are nanda to omou? What do you think that is? And they can say, Gakko da to omou. I think that's a school. And in conversation, we also very often use te omou, to think that, which is kind of like quoting an entire sentence. For example, if your colleague asks you about the date you went on yesterday, you can use the word motenai, unpopular with the opposite sex, and say, Kono hito motenai natte omoimashita.

[00:01:20]I thought, this person must be unpopular.

[00:01:23]Which makes me think, well, you went on a date with an unpopular person, so what does that say about you?

[00:01:30]But maybe you went on a date with a cute girl, and then you can say, Sugoi kawaii natte omoimashita.

[00:01:37]I thought, wow, she's so cute.

[00:01:41]Here, I used te omou, which is more colloquial. So, we use omou very often like this. How about omou with this kanji? Well, this implies something that's more emotional or dramatic, poetic. For example, you can use mainichi, everyday, and say mainichi ai no koto o omou.

[00:02:04]I think about ai everyday.

[00:02:07]And here, you're not intellectually thinking about strategies for her to be more popular as an idol. It's about your feelings and emotions towards her, which may or may not lead to tragic drama. And also the noun version, omoi, feelings or thoughts, is very popular in songs. For example, kiseki by Green, which is somewhat old, but just came to my mind, which goes like afureru omoi ga tomaranai, which is like I can't stop these feelings, like overwhelming feelings.

[00:02:45]And this line is very cliché, so nothing original here. And do you remember this song from Attack on Titan? It's Itterashai by Higuchi Ai, which goes like hontou no omoi o oshiete, something like that, which means tell me your true feelings. And you can describe this song by using kyoku, song, and say kono kyoku wa suki na hito o omotta kyoku da. This song is about thinking of somebody they love. And this omou is more common in writing, like lyrics or in an essay. So, when you're writing an essay, you can use kimochi, feelings, taisetsu, importance, and write tomodachi o omou kimochi wa taisetsu da.

[00:03:34]The feeling of caring for your friends is important. But in daily situations, it's much more common to use omou with this kanji, because in real life, nobody's trying to wipe out the entire population.

[00:03:48]Oh, wait, what about the walls? Uh, let's not think about that.

[00:03:52]But the difference between omou and omou isn't always crystal clear because people's intentions aren't always clear.

[00:04:00]Like why is Aaron trying to kill everybody? It's not very clear. So native speakers don't always know which one to use. But if you're not sure, just use this kanji because it covers pretty much everything. And if you're not quite a Japanese for practical purposes like talking to Japanese people or understanding Japanese media such as and family-friendly anime, maybe you can join my email group because I have both free and paid lessons where you can acquire natural and practical Japanese with natural but easy examples. So click on the link in the description or on the screen to subscribe to my email group Japanese with Yuta.