Comments on: Tsumori

By: masato

masato — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:36:34 +0000

That’s absolutely right, better than my explanation.
You can call me at any time, and ask questions till the exam finishes.
Don’t think too much about tennis or eBay while studying!

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:51:58 +0000

Thanks Masato. Actually, I had a long conversation with my language exchange partner yesterday about this topic and I think I understand this type of sentence better than before.
As you have told me, it leaves room for a kind of excuse – in that, it’s a personal opinion/thought, something which is perhaps not 100% confirmed.
In other words, in can be like と思う, where the speaker is saying what he/she believes to be true.

By: masato

masato — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:55:44 +0000

Yeah you’re right, Darren. The feeling of よく知ってるつもり is emphasising or showing you’re confident.(but not completely confident – including a little bit of future excuse in case you’re wrong.)
But depending on how strong you say that, that could mean you are protecting yourself as you’re actually not sure..
like 「よく知ってるつもりだよ!!」
強がり – do you know what this means?
Sorry my English and explanation might not be enough to convince you all, but the feeling varies depending on how you express.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:25:18 +0000

Ok, I’ve heard something simlar again and the explanations I’ve heard don’t quite match.
「よく知ってるつもりだよ。」
In this example, or in 分かってるつもり, there is no past tense as such, so how can it be that ‘I thought I knew/understood but…’?
The feeling I get from this kind of example is that the speaker is just emphasising the feeling of understanding or knowing, while there is no ‘but’ hidden in the sentence.
Correct me if I’m wrong.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 08:51:43 +0000

Ah… great explanations. Thank you so much. With this in mind I’ll listen out for this in future. Thanks again.

By: nat

nat — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 10:24:13 +0000

Hey again, from your other English reader!
Can’t really add too much to Tae Kim’s explanation, just a helpful passage i found in Jay Rubin’s Making Sense of Japanese (well, somedays I like to think I have a chance!) that it’s better to think of “tsumori” as conviction, and a “たつもり” construction as defending your conviction in the face of evdence to the contrary..
Like in Tae Kim’s example above, maybe he’s looking at the open door and saying “I’m sure I closed it but..”
So your eg sentence 理解できるようになったつもりcould mean (I think) “I thought I’d got my head around that but… (I still didn’t get it).
Wave hello to England for me!

By: Tae Kim

Tae Kim — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:50:45 +0000

That is your intention but it might not be the case. (You might be mistaken)
For instance,
A: ドアをちゃんと閉めた？
B: 閉めたつもりなんだけど。
B had the intention of closing the door but he’s not sure whether it’s actually closed. (He might have forgotten or it might have been opened after by something else)