Grammar › Intention › つもり

Grammar · intend to

つもり

"I intend to." A settled personal plan you've already made in your head — firmer than "maybe", more considered than a spur-of-the-moment idea.

The short version

Put a plain-form verb in front of つもり, then finish with だ／です. It states a decision you've already reached: 行いくつもりです = "I intend to go". For "intend not to", use the negative verb: 行いかないつもり.

行いくつもりです — I intend to go
行いかないつもりです — I intend not to go

つもりです — a plan you've made

Use it for something you've decided and mean to do. It's about your own settled intention, so it's mostly used for yourself (or when reporting someone else's stated plan).

I intend to live here for a while, probably. (settled plan)
▶ Japanese with Shun · Ep42 Timing to return to Japan · 2:31 — hear it →
I plan to go paragliding next week. (intention for the future)
▶ Japanese with Shun · Ep52 Birthday · 1:36 — hear it →

つもりはない — no intention

Attach つもり to だ→ない, and you get "I have no intention of…" — a firm way to rule something out.

So I have no intention whatsoever of quitting, but… (つもりはない = zero intention)
▶ Haru no Nihongo · EP-320 · 29:31 — hear it →

つもりだった — meant to, but…

In the past tense, つもりだった often means an intention that didn't pan out — "I was going to, but…". The unspoken "but it didn't happen" is doing a lot of work.

But actually, I'd intended to go back to Japan last December. (intended — implying it didn't happen)
▶ Japanese with Shun · Ep42 Timing to return to Japan · 1:03 — hear it →

Watch out

Plain form in front, always. It's 行いくつもり / 行いかないつもり — never the polite 行きますつもり. Only the つもり itself takes だ／です for politeness.
🗣 〜たつもり = "acting as if". With a past-tense verb, つもり can mean you're under the impression you did something — 運動うんどうしたつもりになる, "feeling like you've exercised" (even if you barely did). Context tells this apart from a real plan.
Hear つもり in real Japanese
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Next: 〜にする — decide on → · 〜たい — want to → · All grammar

Free on Wakatta — learn Japanese by listening. Every example above is a real line from a Japanese podcast, timestamped so you can hear it.