Saturday 10 September 2016

grammar - Can と and を be interchanged with 思う the way I think they can?


Compare the following two sentences:



あそこに[行]{い}こうと[思]{おも}っている



あそこに[行]{い}こうを[思]{おも}っている



If I'm right about this, they both mean that the speaker is thinking of going somewhere.


However, the difference is that in the first case, the use of indicates the speaker is literally saying those words in their mind. The English translation would be:



I'm thinking, "I'll go over there."



In the second case, indicates that the speaker is not literally thinking those words, so it's not a quote of their thoughts, it's just a description of their thoughts. So the English translation would be:



I'm thinking of going over there.




I think this is right, but somehow the second one looks really awkward to me, so it doesn't feel right in some way.


Is my intuition correct that there is something grammatically wrong with it?


... should it be instead of ?



Answer



Basically, を follows a noun (eg. "車") or a nominal group (eg. "私が運転してる車"), not a proposition. (This) と follows a proposition, not a noun or nominal group.


行こうを思う is thus not grammatical. You'd want 行くことを思う for a grammatically correct sentence. It would mean that you think of the concept of going. It is different from thinking of you going, which would be 行こうと思う, where the 行こう form embeds the subject (since it's a form used to express introspection or monologue where the subject is known to be the thinker). In fact, 行こうとする、 行こうと思う are very common and standard forms to say "I'm getting ready to do go" and "I think I'll go".


Another thing, you can say "君を思う" (I'm thinking of you) but not "君と思う". You'd need "君だと思う" (I think it is you) or something like that which has a different meaning.


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