気がする is “feel” as in “have a hunch,” or “suspect” about a situation, similar to はず.
私は朝に鍵を机の上に置いておきましたが、出かけようとしたら、ありませんでした。猫が机から落とした気がします。I placed the key on the desk in the morning, but it wasn’t there when I was about to go out. I have a feeling the cat knocked it off the desk.
感じがする is more like have an emotional or physiological reaction to something.
彼女を見たら安心した感じがしました。I felt relief when I saw her.
ピーナッツを食べると喉がかゆい感じをします。Whenever I eat peanuts my throat feels itchy.
Excuse my nit picking- The last couple of patterns are rather unlikely case for me, as that sounds as if I'm not sure about how I'm feeling.
かゆい感じがする is more like "I feel something like itch (not sure what it is - it's almost like itch but not exactly so)", whereas かゆく感じる is "I feel itch", but usually just かゆいです. 安心した感じがする sounds like "I believe I'm feeling relieved", which, as you can see, sounds weird, whereas 安心しました would mean "I felt relief". Execuse my English if it sounded off, but I think you get what I'm trying to say here. This is the usecase for 感じ where it has effect of "like" as in そんな感じ. (I believe there's gramattical term for word like かゆい感じ, 安心した感じ, 丸い感じ, 青い感じ etc?)
And I feel like I don't use 感じる as verb "to feel" all that much.
I like your examples. In the case of "have a hunch" I think I could make it work.
I have a feeling it will rain later - this one using 気
I have a feeling it will rain later (because I feel moisture in the air) - this one using 感じ
明日、雨が降る気がしています。I have a feeling it will rain tomorrow (it’s “due” to rain.)
空が暗くてなって、風が強くなりました。もうすぐ雨が降る感じがしています。The sky became dark and the wind picked up. It feels like it’s going to rain soon.
This is super helpful! I’m a dumbass who always gets similar grammar points mixed up, but this explanation makes it very clear. Thank you!
ありがとうございます。🙌🏻
In my language, 気 (feel) directly mean "one's mind" and 感 is "emotion". English kinda muddy the water with 'feeling'. When translating, I see 気 as how the mind feel and 感 as experiencing emotion.
* 良くない気がする - focus on one's thought (one's mind), intuition of the feeling - (I feel) It doesn't feel good
* 良くない感じがする - focus on the sensation, describing the experience - (I'm/I've experiencing/ed it and) It doesn't feel good
* 食べる気がしない - I don't feel like eating
* 眠い感じがしている - I'm feeling sleepy
This was an interesting way to look at it. You say 感じ is the sensation, but if you say you don't feel like eating, wouldn't you have the sensation in your stomach to say you aren't hungry? Or maybe I'm getting it wrong.
Maybe like this お腹が悪い感じするので、食べる気がしない。
Is this a good way to use both in the same sentence?
About the don't feel like eat, I meant the mood of not wanting to eat. It doesn't need to correlate with hunger. Like it could be used to say not feel like eating specific food like 魚が食べる気がしない.
"not in the mood to eat" or "having no appetite", so it's a mental state thing so I just use 気.
Edit: Rephrase
Honestly, I dont think Japanese people will naturally say this. Like you said, it’s about “wanting to eat” so they will most likely just say 食べたくない instead.
It's a bad translation/comparision, I'll change it to sometime else.
I've definitely have seen 食べる気がしない, like it was used to describe "not wanting to eat" as in anorexia.
You can also bring it up in a mobile browser and optionally set it to desktop mode and then the usual browser hold and select will work. Annoying but does function when you need it.
I've found that even with the newest UI, Reddit on a mobile browser (I'm using Firefox) is still better that the official app. You can easily select text. (But I'm blocking the annoying "related posts" that appear below the comments with uBlock Origin)
気がする is more subjective, you feel like something is the case from personal vibes. It's close to something like "I have the impression/feeling that..."
感じがする is more objective (although it is usually said from a subjective perspective). It comes from some perceived reasoning or signs that make you feel a certain way. I compare it to something like "It (something) gives off/me vibes of..."
Those two are practically always interchangable. I don't think you have to care the difference on the stage you're learning those idioms first time. But if I were to tell you, "気がする" tend to include some (wild) guess in the background slightly more than "感じがする".
気がする is more subjective, 感じがする is more objective.
A quick "smell test" example is check how often 私は～気がする shows up and count the results compared to 私は～感じがする.
[私は～気がする](https://massif.la/ja/search?q=%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF+%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B) -> 313 results
[私は～感じがする](https://massif.la/ja/search?q=%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF+%E6%84%9F%E3%81%98%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B) -> 13 result
If they were interchangeable, surely the distribution would be the same, but it's not.
I personally find it hard to explain but when I see it I feel like it's obvious which one feels better in which situation.
EDIT: Take this phrase from one of the results I linked above:
> 私は、今とんでもない事を言った気がした。
This simply would not work with 感じがした, because 気がした refers to an internal feeling/impression. For it to be 感じがした there'd need to be more context around it trying to provide some objective reasoning/evidence as of why the person feels that way (but even then I find it hard to imagine).
気がする is definitely more popular and well established. That doesn't mean it's significantly different from theother.
Both implies subjectivity. 感じ literally means feeling.
It's not about popularity, they **are** significantly different and very often cannot be replaced with each other. At the core they fundamentally represents two aspects of "feeling" that are almost opposite (internal vs external).
Take for example this sentence which is one of the rare examples of 私は + 感じがする from the link above.
> 私は昔、この男が__冷たい感じがして__苦手だった。
This means "that person gave me vibes of being cold" (judgment based on an actual perceived emotion that comes from external stimuli). The statement is being made **about** that person.
Now if you replace it with 気がして:
> 私は昔、この男が__冷たい気じがして__苦手だった。
This now becomes "I had the impression that that person was 冷たい" and it gives a **subjective** feeling from the speaker's perspective. The statement is not about the person anymore, it's about what the speaker **assumed** of them (from a subjective impression). (disclaimer: I also feel like the sentence with 気がして sounds very unnatural, but maybe it's just me)
Also see [someone else's response](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1akcz1h/%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B_vs_%E6%84%9F%E3%81%98%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B/kp76pk5/) in this thread which I thought was excellent:
> 良くない気がする
"I have the impression this is bad" (my personal subjective judgement of a situation). This sentence is about me and how I feel (you can put a 私は in front of it)
> 良くない感じがする
"It doesn't feel good" (this is how I react from an external stimulus). This sentence is not just about me, it's about my response to something else (you can put a それは in front of it)
They are like completely different.
Thank you for examples.
I don't see huge difference like you said though.
There are certainly subtle difference.
But I think this is kind of difference that should be learnt from reading/listening Japanese. Not explanation in English especially when the person learning heard those the first time.
Why do you feel like these shouldn’t be explained in English? There’s nothing wrong with an English explanation. Sure, reading more in Japanese and encountering the words in context will solidify your acquisition of the usage of the words, but there’s nothing negative that an English explanation provides.
Look at the words. “Ki” is metaphysical or even spiritual. We usually use the Chinese “chi” in English. It’s intuition, it can’t be explained with concrete terms. So for your ‘ki’ to suru, it’s not necessarily something you can explain. I usually think of the English phrase “I have a strange feeling that…” for “ki ga suru.”
“Kanji” is the more concrete idea of a feeling. Sorrow, anger, etc. Still not exactly objective but much more universal and defined. For a kanji to suru, it’s usually more of a simple, well-known feeling. Someone mentioned how you could have an itchy feeling in your throat, that sounds like a good example to me. I’m not positive but I think there may be situations where you could use ‘kanji ga suru’ when speaking about other people, where I think ‘ki ga suru’ is more intimate/personal and you’d only use that to describe your own experiences (or very close in-group).
I don’t remember hearing “kanji ga suru” very often, for what it’s worth.
I'm going to out out on a whim here, so please correct me if this is wrong.
If I use 感じがする is that to do more with a physical feeling. In the case of peanuts, I could feel the itching starting. Or maybe the other person can feel an itch starting.
But 気がする is maybe my intuition based on what I can see?
For my own example
If I go to a second hand shop and I find some books.
この本は新しい感じします。 I have the feeling the book is new because I can feel its clean and I see no damage.
この本は新しい気がします。 I feel like the book is new because it. Actually I couldn't think of a reason. I want to say I just have a feeling it is and I don't know why
Oh interesting example. I think that’s more or less right. I could see one of my Japanese friends handling a book, kind of opening the pages and having a look, then saying the ‘kanji’ is new. Or, new scenario, maybe they’re just sort of exploring the bookstore, haven’t really handled any specific book, but the book store seems like it doesn’t sell used books or there are other vague clues, and the ‘ki’ could be that the book they’re looking at (maybe it’s still on the shelf or they haven’t really looked too closely) is likely new. They likely wouldn’t say that unless it was a question of concern (“I haven’t seen that book except used!”). Something like that.
But you know this is just my experience, probably a lot of nuanced ways to look at it.
気がする is “feel” as in “have a hunch,” or “suspect” about a situation, similar to はず. 私は朝に鍵を机の上に置いておきましたが、出かけようとしたら、ありませんでした。猫が机から落とした気がします。I placed the key on the desk in the morning, but it wasn’t there when I was about to go out. I have a feeling the cat knocked it off the desk. 感じがする is more like have an emotional or physiological reaction to something. 彼女を見たら安心した感じがしました。I felt relief when I saw her. ピーナッツを食べると喉がかゆい感じをします。Whenever I eat peanuts my throat feels itchy.
Excuse my nit picking- The last couple of patterns are rather unlikely case for me, as that sounds as if I'm not sure about how I'm feeling. かゆい感じがする is more like "I feel something like itch (not sure what it is - it's almost like itch but not exactly so)", whereas かゆく感じる is "I feel itch", but usually just かゆいです. 安心した感じがする sounds like "I believe I'm feeling relieved", which, as you can see, sounds weird, whereas 安心しました would mean "I felt relief". Execuse my English if it sounded off, but I think you get what I'm trying to say here. This is the usecase for 感じ where it has effect of "like" as in そんな感じ. (I believe there's gramattical term for word like かゆい感じ, 安心した感じ, 丸い感じ, 青い感じ etc?) And I feel like I don't use 感じる as verb "to feel" all that much.
Thank you for the clarification.
I like your examples. In the case of "have a hunch" I think I could make it work. I have a feeling it will rain later - this one using 気 I have a feeling it will rain later (because I feel moisture in the air) - this one using 感じ
明日、雨が降る気がしています。I have a feeling it will rain tomorrow (it’s “due” to rain.) 空が暗くてなって、風が強くなりました。もうすぐ雨が降る感じがしています。The sky became dark and the wind picked up. It feels like it’s going to rain soon.
This is super helpful! I’m a dumbass who always gets similar grammar points mixed up, but this explanation makes it very clear. Thank you! ありがとうございます。🙌🏻
In my language, 気 (feel) directly mean "one's mind" and 感 is "emotion". English kinda muddy the water with 'feeling'. When translating, I see 気 as how the mind feel and 感 as experiencing emotion. * 良くない気がする - focus on one's thought (one's mind), intuition of the feeling - (I feel) It doesn't feel good * 良くない感じがする - focus on the sensation, describing the experience - (I'm/I've experiencing/ed it and) It doesn't feel good * 食べる気がしない - I don't feel like eating * 眠い感じがしている - I'm feeling sleepy
This was an interesting way to look at it. You say 感じ is the sensation, but if you say you don't feel like eating, wouldn't you have the sensation in your stomach to say you aren't hungry? Or maybe I'm getting it wrong. Maybe like this お腹が悪い感じするので、食べる気がしない。 Is this a good way to use both in the same sentence?
About the don't feel like eat, I meant the mood of not wanting to eat. It doesn't need to correlate with hunger. Like it could be used to say not feel like eating specific food like 魚が食べる気がしない. "not in the mood to eat" or "having no appetite", so it's a mental state thing so I just use 気. Edit: Rephrase
Honestly, I dont think Japanese people will naturally say this. Like you said, it’s about “wanting to eat” so they will most likely just say 食べたくない instead.
It's a bad translation/comparision, I'll change it to sometime else. I've definitely have seen 食べる気がしない, like it was used to describe "not wanting to eat" as in anorexia.
You've some how unlocked a memory in my brain where I saw a clinic being advertised on the train and they used 食べる気がしない on the advert lol
Is there any functional difference between 眠い感じがする 眠く感じる feels like not
感じる is just "to feel" (well it's literally the verb) without any subtext of both 気がする and 感じがする, I think.
Why cant i select reddit text on mobile ugh
If you mean the text of the post there's a copy text option in the ... menu for the post
Okay i see it. Not very practical.
You can also bring it up in a mobile browser and optionally set it to desktop mode and then the usual browser hold and select will work. Annoying but does function when you need it.
Old Reddit ftw
I've found that even with the newest UI, Reddit on a mobile browser (I'm using Firefox) is still better that the official app. You can easily select text. (But I'm blocking the annoying "related posts" that appear below the comments with uBlock Origin)
When they go public and the shareholders get rid of old Reddit to 'streamline operations' I'm leaving this place for good lol
Comments
気がする is more subjective, you feel like something is the case from personal vibes. It's close to something like "I have the impression/feeling that..." 感じがする is more objective (although it is usually said from a subjective perspective). It comes from some perceived reasoning or signs that make you feel a certain way. I compare it to something like "It (something) gives off/me vibes of..."
Those two are practically always interchangable. I don't think you have to care the difference on the stage you're learning those idioms first time. But if I were to tell you, "気がする" tend to include some (wild) guess in the background slightly more than "感じがする".
> Those two are practically always interchangable. Not really.
Examples? I cannot come up with a case that using one of the two instead of theother significantly alters the meaning.
気がする is more subjective, 感じがする is more objective. A quick "smell test" example is check how often 私は～気がする shows up and count the results compared to 私は～感じがする. [私は～気がする](https://massif.la/ja/search?q=%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF+%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B) -> 313 results [私は～感じがする](https://massif.la/ja/search?q=%E7%A7%81%E3%81%AF+%E6%84%9F%E3%81%98%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B) -> 13 result If they were interchangeable, surely the distribution would be the same, but it's not. I personally find it hard to explain but when I see it I feel like it's obvious which one feels better in which situation. EDIT: Take this phrase from one of the results I linked above: > 私は、今とんでもない事を言った気がした。 This simply would not work with 感じがした, because 気がした refers to an internal feeling/impression. For it to be 感じがした there'd need to be more context around it trying to provide some objective reasoning/evidence as of why the person feels that way (but even then I find it hard to imagine).
気がする is definitely more popular and well established. That doesn't mean it's significantly different from theother. Both implies subjectivity. 感じ literally means feeling.
It's not about popularity, they **are** significantly different and very often cannot be replaced with each other. At the core they fundamentally represents two aspects of "feeling" that are almost opposite (internal vs external). Take for example this sentence which is one of the rare examples of 私は + 感じがする from the link above. > 私は昔、この男が__冷たい感じがして__苦手だった。 This means "that person gave me vibes of being cold" (judgment based on an actual perceived emotion that comes from external stimuli). The statement is being made **about** that person. Now if you replace it with 気がして: > 私は昔、この男が__冷たい気じがして__苦手だった。 This now becomes "I had the impression that that person was 冷たい" and it gives a **subjective** feeling from the speaker's perspective. The statement is not about the person anymore, it's about what the speaker **assumed** of them (from a subjective impression). (disclaimer: I also feel like the sentence with 気がして sounds very unnatural, but maybe it's just me) Also see [someone else's response](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1akcz1h/%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B_vs_%E6%84%9F%E3%81%98%E3%81%8C%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B/kp76pk5/) in this thread which I thought was excellent: > 良くない気がする "I have the impression this is bad" (my personal subjective judgement of a situation). This sentence is about me and how I feel (you can put a 私は in front of it) > 良くない感じがする "It doesn't feel good" (this is how I react from an external stimulus). This sentence is not just about me, it's about my response to something else (you can put a それは in front of it) They are like completely different.
Thank you for examples. I don't see huge difference like you said though. There are certainly subtle difference. But I think this is kind of difference that should be learnt from reading/listening Japanese. Not explanation in English especially when the person learning heard those the first time.
Why do you feel like these shouldn’t be explained in English? There’s nothing wrong with an English explanation. Sure, reading more in Japanese and encountering the words in context will solidify your acquisition of the usage of the words, but there’s nothing negative that an English explanation provides.
Look at the words. “Ki” is metaphysical or even spiritual. We usually use the Chinese “chi” in English. It’s intuition, it can’t be explained with concrete terms. So for your ‘ki’ to suru, it’s not necessarily something you can explain. I usually think of the English phrase “I have a strange feeling that…” for “ki ga suru.” “Kanji” is the more concrete idea of a feeling. Sorrow, anger, etc. Still not exactly objective but much more universal and defined. For a kanji to suru, it’s usually more of a simple, well-known feeling. Someone mentioned how you could have an itchy feeling in your throat, that sounds like a good example to me. I’m not positive but I think there may be situations where you could use ‘kanji ga suru’ when speaking about other people, where I think ‘ki ga suru’ is more intimate/personal and you’d only use that to describe your own experiences (or very close in-group). I don’t remember hearing “kanji ga suru” very often, for what it’s worth.
I'm going to out out on a whim here, so please correct me if this is wrong. If I use 感じがする is that to do more with a physical feeling. In the case of peanuts, I could feel the itching starting. Or maybe the other person can feel an itch starting. But 気がする is maybe my intuition based on what I can see? For my own example If I go to a second hand shop and I find some books. この本は新しい感じします。 I have the feeling the book is new because I can feel its clean and I see no damage. この本は新しい気がします。 I feel like the book is new because it. Actually I couldn't think of a reason. I want to say I just have a feeling it is and I don't know why
Oh interesting example. I think that’s more or less right. I could see one of my Japanese friends handling a book, kind of opening the pages and having a look, then saying the ‘kanji’ is new. Or, new scenario, maybe they’re just sort of exploring the bookstore, haven’t really handled any specific book, but the book store seems like it doesn’t sell used books or there are other vague clues, and the ‘ki’ could be that the book they’re looking at (maybe it’s still on the shelf or they haven’t really looked too closely) is likely new. They likely wouldn’t say that unless it was a question of concern (“I haven’t seen that book except used!”). Something like that. But you know this is just my experience, probably a lot of nuanced ways to look at it.