～ようと思う: How to Say "I'm Thinking of Doing X" in Japanese

～ようと思う is the JLPT N4 pattern for stating a personal intention. It combines a verb in the plain volitional form, the quotative と, and the verb 思おもう.¹ It is the standard way a speaker reports their own decision in Japanese. The choice between 思おもう and 思おもっている tells the listener whether the plan was formed a moment ago or has been sitting on the speaker's mind for some time.²

Overview

The pattern frames a volitional clause as a quoted thought: literally "I think, [I will do X]." This framing gives ～ようと思う a softer, more reflective feel than the bare polite future ～します or the firmer ～つもりだ.³ It also makes the pattern a first-person predicate by default. A speaker can quote their own thoughts directly, but cannot directly access someone else's.⁴⁵

Where ようと思う sits in the intention toolkit

Japanese has four main first-person intention and plan markers learners need to keep apart: the bare plain volitional (～よう／～おう), volitional + と思おもう (the topic of this article), ～つもり, and ～予定よてい.⁶⁷ The bare volitional alone marks a self-resolution or invitation ("I'll …" / "let's …"). ようと思おもう frames the same volitional content as a thought the speaker is reporting, which softens it to "I'm thinking of …."⁸¹

つもり expresses a firmer, more established intention ("I intend to / I'm planning to"). 予定よてい expresses a concrete, externally arranged schedule ("I'm scheduled to").⁶³⁷ The diagram below sorts the four by how committed the speaker sounds and whether the plan is internal or arranged.

The 60-70 vs 80-90 percent split is a teaching heuristic

One teaching reference gives the felt commitment as roughly 60-70% for 「日本にほんへ行いこうと思おもいます」 versus 80-90% for 「日本にほんへ行いくつもりです」.⁹ Treat the numbers as a memorable contrast, not a measured frequency. They come from a learner-facing teaching source, not a corpus study.

JLPT level and register

Recognized grammar references list ～ようと思おもう as JLPT N4, and the plain volitional ～よう／～おう is also N4.¹¹⁰ The pattern itself is register-neutral. Politeness lives on the matrix verb 思おもう: plain 思おもう for casual speech, 思おもいます for polite speech, and 思おもっております for the polite-humble style used in self-introductions and prepared remarks.¹⁰²

The polite frame ～と思おもいます is the standard choice for meetings, self-introductions, and written plans, where it sounds less assertive than the bare polite future ～します.²⁹ Politeness and tense attach to the matrix verb, never to the embedded volitional. Combining a polite volitional with ましょう and 思おもいます ("～ましょうと思おもいます") is not the standard form.⁸¹

Formation

The structural recipe: Verb-volitional + と + 思う

The pattern breaks into three morphemes, or meaningful parts: the plain volitional ～よう／～おう, the quotative と, and the verb 思おもう.⁸¹¹¹ The と here is the same quotative complementizer that introduces reported speech and reported thought after 言いう, 聞きく, and 考かんがえる. と "acts almost like a spoken quotation mark," embedding the preceding clause as the content of the matrix verb.¹¹

Because the embedded clause is in the plain volitional, the speaker is literally reporting a quoted self-resolution: "[I will do X]; that's what I'm thinking."⁸¹¹ Reading と as an audible quotation mark makes both the construction and the first-person restriction easier to understand.

Conjugation table by verb class

For 一段だん (ichidan) verbs, remove the final る and attach よう, then と思おもう.⁸¹ For 五段ごだん (godan) verbs, shift the dictionary-form final kana from the う-row to the お-row, add う, then と思おもう. This produces a long /ō/ vowel.⁸¹ The two irregulars are する → しよう → しようと思おもう and 来くる → こよう → こようと思おもう. こよう is read koyō (never kiyō).⁸¹

Group	Dictionary form	Volitional	+ と思う
一段	食たべる	食たべよう	食たべようと思おもう1
一段	見みる	見みよう	見みようと思おもう1
一段	始はじめる	始はじめよう	始はじめようと思おもう1
五段 (く→こう)	行いく	行いこう	行いこうと思おもう1
五段 (む→もう)	飲のむ	飲のもう	飲のもうと思おもう1
五段 (う→おう)	買かう	買かおう	買かおうと思おもう1
五段 (す→そう)	話はなす	話はなそう	話はなそうと思おもう1
不規則	する	しよう	しようと思おもう1
不規則	来くる	こよう	こようと思おもう1

Here is the pattern in action across the three verb classes:

明日あした、勉強べんきょうをしようと思おもう。¹
"I think I'll study tomorrow."

来年らいねん、家いえを買かおうと思おもう。¹
"I'm thinking I'll buy a house next year."

帰かえってから、お菓子かしを食たべようと思おもいます。¹
"I'm thinking I'll have a snack after I get home."

Politeness and tense on 思う

All inflection lands on 思おもう. Politeness, tense, and negation conjugate the matrix verb, not the embedded volitional.¹⁰² The standard forms are 思おもう／思おもいます (plain vs. polite, non-past), 思おもった／思おもいました (past, often with an "I was thinking of … but" reading), 思おもっている／思おもっています (the standing-intention reading covered below), and 思おもわない／思おもいません (negation).¹⁰¹²

日本にほんに留学りゅうがくしようと思おもっています。¹⁰
"I'm thinking of studying abroad in Japan."

私わたしはそこに行いこうとは思おもわない。¹⁰
"I have no intention of going there."

と思う vs と思っている: just-decided vs decided-already

と思う: the intention formed at speech time

思おもう in the plain non-past frames the intention as formed at the moment of speech: "I think I'll …." It sounds like a fresh or spontaneous resolution.²⁹ This reading lines up with the broader descriptive observation that 思おもう denotes a momentary mental activity rather than a sustained mental state.⁴

今度こんどの休やすみに海うみへ行いこうと思おもう。¹⁰
"I think I'll go to the beach on my next day off."

今日きょうの宿題しゅくだいは難むずかしいので、先生せんせいに相談そうだんしようと思おもいます。²
"Today's homework is hard, so I'm thinking I'll go ask the teacher."

と思っている: the intention you have been holding

思おもっている is the resultative/continuous form of 思おもう. With ようと思おもっている, the speaker reports a standing intention that has been on their mind for some time.¹²⁹ The shift is aspectual, not lexical: it uses the same ～ている mechanic that produces "is doing / is in the state of having done" elsewhere in the language. Mental-state verbs like 思おもう take the result-state reading.⁴

One source states the contrast directly: ～と思おもっています "implies that the intention or plan has been formed for a while," while ～と思おもいます expresses "an intention or decision that is made at the time of speaking."²

来年らいねん、日本にほんに留学りゅうがくしようと思おもっています。²
"I've been thinking of studying abroad in Japan next year."

Contrast that with a resolution that forms on the spot, where the plain 思おもう is the natural choice:

子こどもができたからタバコを辞やめようと思おもう。¹⁰
"Now that I'm having a child, I'm thinking I'll quit smoking."

Why this matters for self-presentation

The と思おもう／と思おもっている choice signals how long the speaker has been holding the plan. Native speakers tend to use 思おもっている for any plan that has been on the table for more than a moment, and 思おもう for in-the-moment proposals.²⁹

In speeches, plans of study, written self-introductions, and other contexts where the plan has clearly been thought through, ～と思おもっております (the polite-humble form of 思おもっている) is the unmarked choice. ～と思おもいます sounds slightly more on-the-spot.²⁹

Nuance and usage contexts

The first-person restriction

Bare ～ようと思おもう reports the speaker's own internal state and is restricted to first-person subjects (and, in questions, second-person).¹³¹² This is part of the broader first-person psych-predicate restriction. In plain terms, Japanese mental-state predicates such as 思おもう, ～たい, ～ほしい, うれしい, and さびしい are normally stated directly only for the speaker's own mind. For a third-person subject, an evidential, the ～がる suffix, or a continuous/resultative form is required instead.⁵

Descriptive sources state the rule for 思おもう specifically: "omou is a mental activity which others cannot perceive directly. So, omou is not (often) used for the third person."⁴ In other words, you cannot simply state another person's unobservable thought as if you had direct access to it.

Bare ようと思う with a third-person subject is infelicitous

A sentence like 田中たなかさんは引ひっ越こそうと思おもう is ungrammatical as a report about Tanaka. The speaker cannot directly inspect Tanaka's thoughts. The predicate has to shift to a perceivable mental state (思おもっている), an evidential marker such as らしい or そうだ, reported speech (と言いっていた), or a scheduled-event noun (予定よてい).⁴¹⁴⁵

How to talk about other people's intentions

When the subject is a third person, Japanese avoids the access problem with one of five standard workarounds. The choice depends on how the speaker came to know the plan and how firm or arranged it is.

1. ～ようと思おもっている (third person OK). The continuous/resultative shifts the reading from "instantaneous mental act" (inaccessible) to "ongoing mental state" (perceivable through behavior or report). This lifts the person restriction.⁴¹⁴ One source puts it categorically: "When the subject is a third person, '～と思おもっている' is used exclusively."¹⁴
2. ～らしい／～そうだ (evidential hedge). ～ようと思おもっているらしい or ようと思おもっているそうだ adds a hearsay or inference marker. This shows that the speaker is not claiming direct access.
3. Xはつもりだ. つもり is not a psych-predicate, or mental-state predicate. It freely takes second- and third-person subjects and is the standard alternative when the intention is firm.¹⁵³
4. Xは…と言いっていた／と言いっていました (reported speech). "X said they would …" routes around the access problem by attributing the claim to the third party's own words.¹⁶
5. Xは…する予定よていだ. 予定よてい reports an externally arranged schedule rather than an internal intention, so it is freely available for any subject.⁷

田中たなかさんは来月らいげつ引ひっ越こそうと思おもっているらしい。¹⁴
"I hear Tanaka-san is thinking of moving next month."

山田やまださんは来週らいしゅう休やすむつもりだ。¹⁵
"Yamada-san intends to take next week off."

部長ぶちょうは明日あした休やすむと言いっていました。¹⁶
"The department head said he'd take tomorrow off."

鈴木すずきさんは来年らいねん結婚けっこんする予定よていです。⁷
"Suzuki-san is scheduled to get married next year."

ようと思います in soft self-announcement

The polite ～ようと思おもいます is the canonical way to announce a forthcoming action in a meeting, a self-introduction, or a written plan. It sounds less assertive than the bare polite future ～します and less rigid than ～つもりです.²⁹

The softening comes from the frame shift. The speaker reports an intention as a thought rather than declaring the action outright, which leaves rhetorical room for revision.³

来月らいげつから日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうを始はじめようと思おもいます。¹
"I'm thinking I'll start studying Japanese from next month."

今日きょうから文法ぶんぽうの勉強べんきょうを始はじめようと思おもう。¹
"I think I'll start studying grammar today."

Negation: not "I'm thinking of not doing"

～ようと思おもわない is the standard negation: "I don't intend to / I'm not thinking of."¹⁰ ～ようとは思おもわない inserts は before 思おもわない. It is a slightly stronger, contrastive form: "I have no intention whatsoever of."¹⁰

The plain volitional itself has no native negative form. To express "I'm thinking I won't," Japanese uses either ～ないでおこうと思おもう (the volitional of ～ないでおく) or ～しないつもりだ.⁶³

私わたしはそこに行いこうとは思おもわない。¹⁰
"I have no intention of going there."

Past tense: 思った and abandoned plans

～ようと思おもった frequently reads as "I was thinking of … (but didn't / haven't yet)." The past on 思おもう often implies the intention was rescinded, was overtaken by events, or simply has not yet been acted on.¹²

Past 思った usually implies the plan was dropped or stalled

This is why ～ようと思おもった clauses commonly take a contrastive follow-up with けど, のに, or が. The past tense carries a built-in expectation of a "but" clause to come.¹² If the plan was actually carried out, Japanese typically uses the plain past of the main verb (行いった, 食たべた) rather than 行いこうと思おもった.

カレーライスを作つくろうと思おもったが、材料ざいりょうがなかった。¹²
"I was going to make curry, but I didn't have the ingredients."

今いま、やろうと思おもったのに。¹²
"I was just about to do it!"

電話でんわしようと思おもったけど、忙いそがしくてできなかった。¹²
"I was thinking I'd call, but I was too busy and didn't get to."

Good to know

Dropping the quotative と produces a broken sentence

Learners coming from English sometimes write 行こう思う, treating と as optional. But と is required. It is the quotative complementizer that embeds the volitional clause as the content of 思おもう. Without it, the volitional and the verb 思おもう are two separate predicates with nothing linking them, and the sentence is ungrammatical.¹¹¹ The correct form keeps と in place:

行いこうと思おもう。¹
"I think I'll go."

Reading と as a spoken quotation mark

A useful mnemonic for the whole pattern is to hear ようと思おもう as the speaker quoting their own decision back to themselves: "[I will go], that's what I'm thinking." The と is the same quotative used in と言いう ("said that"), so ようと思おもう is structurally parallel to ようと言いう ("said let's …").⁴⁵¹¹ Hearing と as a quotation mark makes the first-person restriction clearer. The speaker can quote their own thoughts directly, but cannot directly quote someone else's. That is why an evidential or a reported-speech frame is required for a third party.

ようと考える is grammatical but feels deliberative

～ようと考かんがえる exists and is grammatical, but 考かんがえる ("think over, consider") frames the intention as the product of analysis or deliberation. 思おもう frames it as a felt thought, so ～ようと思おもう is the unmarked everyday choice. ～ようと考かんがえる is rare in conversation and more at home in written reasoning or formal speech, where the speaker wants to signal deliberation. None of the consulted sources support this with a corpus count, so treat it as a pedagogical register note rather than a measured frequency claim.

The と of と思う is the same と that quotes speech

The と that follows 言いう, 聞きく, and 読よむ to embed a quoted utterance is the same と that follows 思おもう, 考かんがえる, and 信しんじる to embed a quoted thought. ようと思おもう is therefore structurally parallel to ようと言いう ("said let's …"). Descriptive grammars of Japanese treat と in this environment as a complementizer, a word that embeds one clause inside another.¹¹

See also

• Inferential Suffixes in Japanese: ～そう, ～よう, ～らしい, ～みたい Compared
• The Nai-Form (ない形): Plain Negative of Japanese Verbs
• Polite vs. Plain Japanese: です/ます vs. だ (丁寧体・普通体)
• The Plain Past た-Form in Japanese: Past, Perfective, and Beyond
• Reported Speech and Tense in Japanese: Why There Is No Backshift

References

Footnotes

1. 〜ようと思う・〜おうと思う (JLPT N4). Bunpro grammar reference. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86-%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86; formation rule, JLPT N4 level, example bank, the ようと思う vs ようと思っている "newly formed vs standing intention" split, and the ようと思う vs つもりだ certainty contrast. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

2. Making Plans in Japanese: Expressing Intentions with V(volitional) + と思っています. gokigen blog. https://blog.gokigen.jp/making-plans-in-japanese-expressing-intentions-with-vvolitional/ (limitation); the just-decided vs decided-already split made explicit: ～と思います for a decision formed at speech time, ～と思っています for an intention held "for a while"; first-person preference noted on the grounds that the speaker cannot directly access another person's thoughts. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

3. つもりだ (JLPT N5). Bunpro grammar reference. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A0; つもりだ "feels slightly more 'official' or definite, similar to … 'I intend to'," in contrast to ようと思う which feels casual and tentative. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Suzuki, Michitaka et al. "to omou & to omotte iru." Discussion thread on sci.lang.japan, archived at Google Groups. https://groups.google.com/g/sci.lang.japan/c/VRWe2vJyGO4 (limitation); restates the classic descriptive observation that "omou is a mental activity which others cannot perceive directly" and that bare 思う is therefore "not (often) used for the third person," whereas 思っている (a perceivable mental state) is freely available for third-person subjects. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Hasegawa, Yoko. Japanese: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Treatment of the quotative と and the "first-person internal-state" constraint on Japanese psych-predicates (思う, ～たい, ～ほしい, うれしい, さびしい): direct predication is reserved for the speaker; third-person ascription requires an evidential, the ～がる suffix, or a continuous/resultative form. (Cited as the standard academic statement of the constraint that anchors the first-person rule for ようと思う.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Plans & Intentions in Japanese ／ With つもり, 予定 & ようと思う. LTL Japanese. https://ltl-japanese.com/grammar-bank/intention-in-japanese/ (limitation); three-way map of the intention markers: つもり and 予定 as "firm intention" markers, ようと思う as the "slightly weaker" thinking-of-doing pattern. ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. 予定 (Plan to). Practice Japanese. https://practice-japanese.com/grammar/yotei/ (limitation); 予定 as the "concrete schedule" marker (booked or arranged) versus つもり as personal intention; usable freely with third-person subjects because 予定 describes an externally verifiable schedule rather than an internal mental state. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Makino, Seiichi, and Michio Tsutsui. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, 1986. Entry "(y)ō ＜よう／おう＞" (volitional auxiliary). The plain volitional ～よう/～おう encodes the speaker's volition or invitation ("let's," "I'll," "I think I'll"), and combines with と思う to state a personal intention. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

9. N4文法：意向形＋と思います vs ～つもりです. LearnJapanese.sg. https://learnjapanese.sg/2016/05/25/n4%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95%EF%BC%9A%E6%84%8F%E5%90%91%E5%BD%A2%EF%BC%8B%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99-vs-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A4%E3%82%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99/ (limitation); pedagogical comparison giving 「日本へ行こうと思います」 a "60-70% 可能性" weighting versus 「日本へ行くつもりです」 at "80-90% 可能性"; ～と思っています framed as the form for an intention "formed earlier," ～と思います for a thought formed at the moment of speech. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

10. JLPT N4 Grammar: ようと思う (you to omou) Meaning. JLPTsensei. https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86-you-to-omou-meaning/ (limitation); JLPT N4 level confirmation, gloss "thinking of doing; planning to," formation, conjugation of the matrix verb (思います polite, 思っている continuous, 思わない negative), and example sentences. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

11. Tofugu. "Japanese Sentence and Clause Structure." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/sentences-and-clauses/ (limitation); the quotative と as a complementizer that embeds a clause as the content of 思う/言う/聞く; "と acts almost like a spoken quotation mark." Used to anchor the morpheme-level decomposition [volitional clause] + と + 思う. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

12. Maggie Sensei. How to use volitional form in Japanese ／ V（よ）う. https://maggiesensei.com/2018/09/24/how-to-use-volitional-form-in-japanese%E3%80%80v%EF%BC%88%E3%82%88%EF%BC%89%E3%81%86/ (limitation); first-person subject restriction stated as a usage rule, past tense ようと思った with the "intended but did not / has not yet" reading, common follow-up clauses with けど・のに・が. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

13. Makino, Seiichi, and Michio Tsutsui. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, 1986. Entry "(y)ō to omou ＜ようと思う＞": volitional + と思う expresses the first-person speaker's intention. For a third party's intention と思っている is used. ↩

14. 思う vs 思っている / "Expressing One's Thoughts." Nihongo wa tanoshii desu. https://nihongodesu.livejournal.com/13437.html (limitation); same descriptive rule: "When the subject is a third person, '~ to omotte iru' is used exclusively." ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

15. Makino, Seiichi, and Michio Tsutsui. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, 1986. Entry "tsumori ＜つもり＞": tsumori expresses an intention or plan held by the subject; with a third-person subject the form remains usable (unlike the speaker-internal mental-activity predicate 思う). ↩ ↩²

16. Coto Academy. "How to Say 'Someone said~' in Japanese; JLPT N4 Grammar: と言っていました." https://cotoacademy.com/say-someone-said-japanese-jlpt-n4-grammar/ (limitation); the と言っていた / と言っていました form for relaying what a third party said, used as the standard reported-speech workaround when ascribing a stated intention to someone else. ↩ ↩²