～つもり: How to State a Firm Intention in Japanese (and the つもりだった Trap)

The ～つもり pattern is the N4 way to state a firm, already-decided intention in Japanese. It is written as a verb attached to the noun つもり plus a copula.¹ It sits one step firmer than ～ようと思う on the intention scale. Its past form つもりだった hides a tense-driven meaning flip that catches almost every learner at least once.^{2 3}

Overview

つもり grammar in Japanese marks an intention the speaker has already decided on. Because つもり is itself a noun, the predicate is built as clause + つもり + copula. Tense and politeness ride on the copula, not on つもり.^{1 4}

つもり as a noun, not a verb ending

Treat つもり as a noun in the predicate slot, not as a conjugation. The verb in front of it stays in its plain attributive form (the form that modifies a noun), and the copula behind it carries tense and politeness. This single fact explains the entire conjugation paradigm below.

What つもり literally means

つもり is a noun (名詞). It was historically written 積もり (also 積り) and, in older usage, 心算; in modern grammaticalized use it is conventionally written in hiragana.^{5 6 7} It is the 連用形 (renyōkei, stem form) of the godan verb 積もる, "to pile up, to accumulate." The "intention" sense is therefore a nominalized accumulation: "what has piled up in the mind."^{6 7}

The 大辞林 dictionary headword lists four senses for the noun: a pre-existing thought or intention, an as-if state ("acting as if (X)"), an estimation or calculation, and the act of accumulating itself.⁵ The "intention" reading is the productive grammaticalized use that follows a clause modifying つもり. The other nominal senses survive in fixed expressions but sit outside the N4 scope.^{5 8}

Because つもり is a noun, the predicate takes a copula: つもりだ / つもりです in the non-past, and つもりだった / つもりでした in the past. つもり itself never inflects.^{1 4}

行いくつもりだ。¹
"I intend to go."

これからもっと日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうをがんばるつもりです。⁹
"I intend to work harder at my Japanese from now on."

Where つもり sits on the intention scale

つもり presents the intention as already decided and on the books in the speaker's mind, "both subjective will and an established plan."² ～ようと思う presents a leaning that is still being weighed, so it feels softer or more tentative.¹⁰ 予定 presents a scheduled plan with objective standing (calendar, ticket, arrangement) and does not necessarily imply personal will.¹⁰

The three patterns line up on a single firmness axis, from the most tentative speaker-internal lean to the most externally fixed schedule.

来週京都らいしゅうきょうとへ行いくつもりです。²
"I'm planning to go to Kyoto next week."

つもりだ and the volitional + と思う pattern took shape as parallel ways to mark intention in Edo-period Japanese. Since then, they have divided labor between firmer-and-decided (つもり) and softer-or-mid-decision (ようと思う) registers.¹¹

JLPT level and register

つもり is officially an N4 grammar point and works in plain (つもりだ) and polite (つもりです) registers without difficulty.^{12 13} A very formal variant, つもりでございます, exists and draws on the でございます register of teineigo. It is rare and limited to highly deferential service or written address; learners do not need to produce it.⁹

The form is not restricted to honorific speech. Still, it can sound awkward when a subordinate uses it to tell a superior about a personal plan, especially when a more deferential frame (～たいと思っております, ～する予定でございます) is expected.⁹

Form: how to attach つもり

The recipe is short: an attributive verb form goes in front, つもり goes in the middle, and the copula goes behind it. Politeness and tense both live on the copula. The masu-form is ungrammatical in front of つもり.¹⁴

Verb (dictionary form) + つもり: affirmative intention

Take the plain non-past (dictionary form) of any verb, attach つもり, and then add the copula.^{1 12} This works across every verb class, including 一段, 五段, する, and くる verbs.¹⁵

Verb class	Dictionary form	With つもり
一段 (ichidan)	食たべる	食たべるつもりだ
五段 (godan)	行いく	行いくつもりだ
する verb	勉強べんきょうする	勉強べんきょうするつもりだ
くる verb	来くる	来くるつもりだ

日本にほんに行いくつもりだ。¹⁵
"I intend to go to Japan."

明日早あしたはやく起おきるつもりです。¹⁵
"I plan to get up early tomorrow."

Never attach つもり to a masu-form verb

行いきますつもりです is ungrammatical. Politeness belongs on the outer copula, not on the inner verb. The verb in front of つもり stays in its plain attributive form even when the predicate is polite.¹⁴

Verb (nai-form) + つもり: negative intention as a firm plan

Take the plain negative (nai-form) of the verb and attach つもり. This means the speaker has positively decided against the action.^{1 16} The force is "actively avoiding (A)": a decided "no," not a vague abstention.¹⁵

帰かえらないつもりです。¹⁴
"I'm planning not to go back."

やせるまで甘あまいものは何なにも食たべないつもりだ。⁹
"I'm planning not to eat any sweets until I lose weight."

Tense and politeness on つもり itself

The copula carries both tense and politeness. The noun つもり is invariant.^{1 4} The full plain-and-polite, non-past-and-past grid is small. However, the past forms carry dedicated meanings and do not just mean "intended in the past" in a neutral way (see the つもりだった sections below).^{2 3}

	Plain	Polite
Non-past	つもりだ	つもりです
Past	つもりだった	つもりでした

スポーツが上手じょうずになるつもりだった。¹⁵
"I was going to get good at sports."

Negating the intention vs negating the verb: a four-way table

Negation can appear in four places, each with a distinct force and register. Two of them ("decide not to do" and "have no intention of doing") answer a planning question. The other two ("that wasn't my intention") clarify how an act was meant after a misunderstanding.^{16 15}

Pattern	Strength	Pragmatic function
Vないつもりだ	Neutral	Speaker has decided not to do the action.
Vるつもりはない	Strong	Speaker denies any such intention exists; rebuts pressure or accusation.
Vるつもりじゃない	Defensive	Conversational denial of how an act appeared; often + けど / が.
Vるつもりではない	Defensive (formal)	Uncontracted form; same denial as じゃない, more literary or formal.

明日あしたのパーティーに行いかないつもりです。¹⁵
"I'm planning not to go to tomorrow's party."

明日あしたのパーティーに行いくつもりはないです。¹⁵
"I have no intention of going to tomorrow's party."

急せかすつもりじゃないけど、時間じかんがあまりないのよ。¹⁶
"I don't mean to rush you, but we're running out of time."

Ichikawa reports this strength ordering for the basic intention sense: Vないつもり is neutral decided-against; Vるつもりはない is markedly stronger and is the form used when someone pushes back. Vるつもりじゃない and Vるつもりではない sit on a different axis altogether: defensive denial of perceived intent rather than a plain "no" to a planning question.¹⁶ Bunpro and Hanabira both treat つもりはない as the standard strong-negation pair to ないつもり. They do not list じゃない / ではない as alternants of those two. The じゃない / ではない pair is its own pragmatic move: clarification rather than refusal.^{15 12}

A particle note: in Vるつもり[X]ない, the particle slot can take は, が, or じゃ. が adds a flavor of "unconcerned with" the action. じゃ is a neutral defensive denial; では is the literary register of the same denial.^{16 15}

Nuance and usage contexts

つもり vs ～ようと思う: firmness, not just synonyms

つもり presents the intention as already decided and on the books in the speaker's mind. ようと思う presents a leaning that may still be revised, often glossed in English as "I'm thinking of."^{2 10} ようと思う also works for an on-the-spot decision. つもり is awkward there because it asserts a pre-formed plan.^{2 9}

The two patterns are not free variants. Swapping one for the other changes how committed the speaker sounds, and a listener will pick up on the shift.¹¹

来週京都らいしゅうきょうとへ行いくつもりです。²
"I'm planning to go to Kyoto next week."

来週京都らいしゅうきょうとへ行いこうと思おもいます。¹⁰
"I'm thinking of going to Kyoto next week."

つもり vs 予定: intention vs schedule

予定 names a plan with an external footprint (calendar entry, reservation, agreed appointment). The source of the plan can be someone else, and the speaker may or may not personally will it.¹⁰ つもり names the speaker's own intention. The plan lives inside the speaker's head and need not correspond to anything on paper.^{2 10}

The two often both translate into English as "plan to." A Japanese speaker can naturally say 行く予定だ for a meeting their boss put on their calendar. 行くつもりだ in the same situation foregrounds personal will, which may sound oddly insubordinate.^{17 10}

明日映画あしたえいがを見みるつもりです。¹⁰
"I intend to watch a movie tomorrow."

明日あした、映画えいがを見みる予定よていです。¹⁰
"I'm scheduled to watch a movie tomorrow."

The first-person rule and the third-person workaround

In present-tense affirmative use, the bare つもりだ predicate strongly favors first-person subjects ("I"). Corpus tendencies put first-person use at roughly three quarters of instances.¹⁷ Using it for a third party with no evidential wrapper sounds presumptuous. It is similar to the contrast between 私わたしは嬉うれしいです and 田中たなかさんは嬉うれしいです: Japanese is wary of asserting another person's inner state without marking the source of the claim.²

For a third-person subject, the safer move is to wrap the predicate with an evidential or hearsay marker, which shows how you know the information. つもりらしい means "seems to intend." つもりだそうだ means "I hear that (X) intends." つもりだと言っている means "(X) is saying that (X) intends." The pattern is parallel to the well-documented と思う / と思っている preference for thoughts and intentions belonging to other minds.⁹

The negative pattern Vるつもりはない is somewhat freer with first person in pushback contexts. The restriction discussed here is on affirmative third-person use.¹⁷

私わたしは本屋ほんやに寄よってから帰かえるつもりです。¹⁷
"I plan to stop by the bookstore on the way home."

彼かれは６月ろくがつに日本にほんに留学りゅうがくするつもりらしい。⁹
"It seems he intends to study abroad in Japan in June."

つもりだった: "I was going to" (counterfactual)

A verb in plain non-past + つもりだった reads as a past intention that did not happen: "I was going to X (but Y)."^{15 3} The pattern usually appears with a contrastive clause (けど, が, のに) carrying what happened instead.³

京都きょうとまでは車くるまで行いくつもりだったが、やっぱり電車でんしゃで行いくことにした。⁹
"I was going to drive to Kyoto, but in the end I decided to take the train."

つもりだった: "I thought I had" (self-perception slip)

A verb in plain past (た-form) + つもりだった reads as a self-perception that turned out wrong: "I thought I had X-ed."^{2 14 3} The trap is that the tense on the inner verb changes the reading, not the tense on つもり.^{2 14}

電気でんきを消けしたつもりなのに、ずっとつけっぱなしだった。³
"I thought I had turned the lights off, but they had been on the whole time."

部長ぶちょうにメールを送おくったつもりなんだけど、下書したがきのままだった。³
"I thought I had sent the email to the department head, but it was still sitting in drafts."

Verb (past) + つもり for self-conviction

The same past-inner-verb + つもり construction also appears in the present tense, as たつもりだ. It means "I am of the conviction that I have X-ed."^{2 14} It carries a self-critical or hedged flavor and often pairs with けど or のに to suggest a possible gap between belief and reality.^{15 12}

The canonical examples (わかったつもり, 知しっているつもり) state what the speaker believes they know while explicitly leaving room for someone else to dispute it.^{9 3}

自分じぶんではちゃんと発音はつおんしているつもりなんだけど、私わたしの日本語にほんごが通つうじないことがある。⁹
"I'm of the impression I'm pronouncing properly, but there are times my Japanese doesn't get through."

十分勉強じゅうぶんべんきょうしたつもりだ。¹⁴
"I believe I've studied enough."

つもりはない: declining intent firmly

Vるつもりはない is the strongest of the negative shapes. It is the natural response to pressure ("won't you reconsider?"), accusation ("are you trying to skip out?"), or a third-party suggestion the speaker wants to firmly turn down.^{16 15}

つもりはない escalates the conversational temperature

Ichikawa's contrast: Speaker B says 行いかないつもりだ, and Speaker A pushes back with 行いかないの？ B's escalation is 行いくつもりはない, "no, I have no intention of going at all." Reach for つもりはない when refusing pressure, not as a default negative.¹⁶

The pattern frequently appears with refusal verbs and stance verbs: 謝あやまるつもりはない, 譲ゆずるつもりはない, 辞やめるつもりはない.¹⁵

彼かれに私わたしが結婚けっこんすることを言いうつもりはありません。⁹
"I have no intention of telling him that I'm getting married."

謝あやまるつもりはない。¹⁵
"I have no intention of apologizing."

この店みせを売うるつもりはない！¹⁴
"I have no intention of selling this shop!"

Good to know

Etymology: つもり as something piled up in the mind

The noun つもり is the nominalized 連用形 (stem) of the verb 積もる, "to accumulate, to pile up."^{6 7} The metaphor is that an intention has piled up in the mind until it has the weight of a decided plan. That is why つもり behaves as a noun ("an accumulation of intent") and takes the copula.^{5 8} Remembering the literal "pile-up" is enough to anchor both its noun-like behavior and its firm flavor.

Do not use つもり for plans you have not actually decided

つもりだ asserts a decided plan, not a wish. If you frame a first-date "I'd love to visit Japan someday" as 日本にほんへ行いくつもりです, it reads as if a flight is already booked. For tentative wishes, reach for 日本にほんへ行いきたいです or 日本にほんへ行いこうと思おもっています instead.^{2 10}

日本にほんへ行いきたいです。¹⁰
"I'd like to go to Japan."

The "thought I was" reading needs a past-tense inner verb

The tense of the inner verb changes the meaning, not the tense of つもり. 食たべるつもりだった means "I was going to eat (but didn't)" and is counterfactual. 食たべたつもりだった means "I thought I had eaten (but hadn't)" and is self-perception. Because つもり is a noun, the copula on the outside only changes tense and politeness. The meaning split between an intention that fell through and a belief about a completed action lives entirely on the inner verb.^{2 14 3}

食たべたつもりだった。²
"I thought I had eaten."

つもりではない and つもりじゃない are clarifications, not refusals

To decline a suggestion ("apologize, won't you?"), the natural response is 謝あやまるつもりはない, not 謝あやまるつもりじゃない. The じゃない and ではない forms negate the characterization of an act ("that's not what I meant by it"). They are typically used after a misunderstanding. Japan Foundation teaching materials explicitly separate these into two different pragmatic functions.^{16 15}

謝あやまるつもりはない。¹⁵
"I have no intention of apologizing."

つもり for third parties needs an evidential wrapper

Japanese generally avoids asserting another person's inner intention without an evidential frame. 田中たなかさんは会社かいしゃを辞やめるつもりだ sounds presumptuous on its own. The natural shapes are つもりらしい, つもりだそうだ, or つもりだと言いっている, each of which marks the source of the claim.^{17 9} The same caution applies to the past self-perception reading when the subject is a third party: keep the evidential wrapper in place rather than asserting another mind's belief directly.

田中たなかさんは会社かいしゃを辞やめるつもりらしい。⁹
"It seems Mr. Tanaka intends to quit the company."

つもりで as a separate N2 use (preview only)

つもりで attached to a clause means "with the intention of (X)" or "as if (X)." It is a separate, more advanced grammar item (N2). It shows up in patterns like 死しんだつもりで, "as if (you) had died, i.e. with total resolve." Treat it only as a forward pointer; it is not part of the N4 つもりだ pattern covered here.⁸

Politeness ladder

All four negation shapes climb the same politeness ladder via the outer copula. Plain forms are つもりだ, つもりじゃない, つもりはない. Polite forms are つもりです, つもりじゃないです (or つもりではありません), つもりはありません. A very deferential つもりでございます appears in highly formal service or written speech but is rare and not required at N4.⁹

See also

• ～はず: How to Express Logical Expectation in Japanese
• ～でしょう / ～だろう: Conjecture and Confirmation in Japanese
• The ～たい Form: How to Say "Want To Do" in Japanese
• ～ことにする / ～ことになる: Decide vs. It Was Decided

References

Footnotes

1. Makino, Seiichi and Tsutsui, Michio. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, 1986, entry "tsumori," pp. 503–507. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. 市川保子 (Ichikawa, Yasuko). 「文法を楽しく：つもり（１）」. 日本語教育通信, 国際交流基金 (Japan Foundation). https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/project/japanese/teach/tsushin/grammar/201212.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. The True Japan. "The Tsumori Form in Japanese: A Complete Guide." https://thetruejapan.com/tsumori-form-in-japanese/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Kaiser, Stefan; Ichikawa, Yasuko; Kobayashi, Noriko; Yamamoto, Hilofumi. Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge, 2013, sec. on tsumori, pp. 242–245. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. 三省堂 (Sanseido). 『大辞林』entry for つもり (積もり・心算). Reproduced via Weblio Japanese Dictionary. https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. ウィクショナリー日本語版 (Japanese Wiktionary). Entry 「つもり」, summarizing the noun's classical and modern senses and its derivation from the renyōkei of 積もる. https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Wiktionary (English). Entry "つもり," etymology section deriving the suffix-noun from the 連用形 of 積もる. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Rubin, Jay. Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You. Kodansha USA, 2013, ch. on tsumori, pp. 101–104. ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Maggie Sensei. "How to use つもり ( = tsumori)." https://maggiesensei.com/2019/08/28/how-to-use-%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A-tsumori/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

10. LTL Mandarin School. "Plans & Intentions in Japanese with つもり, 予定 & ようと思う." https://ltl-japanese.com/grammar-bank/intention-in-japanese/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

11. 中村香生里 (Nakamura, Kaori). 「「～するつもりだ」「～（よ）うと＋思考動詞」の歴史的変遷：意志表現の定着と相互比較」. 同志社大学日本語・日本文化研究 vol. 15, 2017, pp. 39–91. https://bibdb.ninjal.ac.jp/bunken/ja/article/100000188471 ↩ ↩²

12. Hanabira. "Verb つもり (〜tsumori)." https://hanabira.org/japanese/grammarpoint/Verb%20%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A%20(%E3%80%9Ctsumori) (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

13. 国際交流基金 (Japan Foundation). JLPT N4 文法 Can-do list / 出題基準, listing つもり among the N4 grammar items. https://www.jlpt.jp/ ↩

14. Tofugu. "つもり For Expressing Intentions." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/tsumori/ (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

15. Bunpro. "つもりだ (JLPT N5)." https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A0 (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

16. 市川保子 (Ichikawa, Yasuko). 「文法を楽しく：つもり（２）」. 日本語教育通信, 国際交流基金 (Japan Foundation). https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/project/japanese/teach/tsushin/grammar/201303.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

17. 川島拓馬 (Kawashima, Takuma). 「「～する気だ」と「～するつもりだ」に違いはありますか」. ことば研究館, 国立国語研究所 (NINJAL). https://kotoba.ninjal.ac.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-222/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵