The various uses of 気 in isolation


The expressions/phrases that involve 気 (ie: 気になる, 気にする, 気がついた, etc) are pretty
well documented online. However, it seems difficult to find how to use 気
outside of these. For example, I recently encountered:

> 逃げる気ですね、優希ちゃん

(saying that Yuuki seems to be running away with the game)

> 何になる気だ

(asking "what will you become?" after another character says they will lose
their human form)

In the first example, 気 to be functioning a bit like みたい or よう, while in the
second, I'm not exactly sure what it is doing.

While I'd like an answer addressing what is being expressed in these examples,
I would also like a more general coverage of how 気 is used outside of
expressions.




In the examples that you gave:

> 逃げる気ですね、優希ちゃん

and

> 何になる気だ

気 here has a sense of _inclination_ or _feeling_. So, in the first example, it
could be more literally translated as

> You're feeling like running away, right.

The last example you could translate as

> What do you want to become?

_want_ is a bit strong. 気 has a much more vague meaning. If you said something
like

> する気になった

You might say that in English as "I got it into my head to do..."

Generally, 気 has a very broad range of meanings.

I find online dictionaries rather clunky at times. If you know what you're
looking for, they work. But if you want to get a better feel for the nuance of
things, they're just not very well organized for that purpose.

I would suggest digging out an old paper [和英辞典]{わえいじてん} and looking at the
examples listed. Even though my Obunsha dictionary is over 30 years old, it's
still pretty good for perusing and getting a feel for the variety and shades
of meanings for more idiomatic words, particularly words like 気.




In the examples that you gave:

> 逃げる気ですね、優希ちゃん

and

> 何になる気だ

気 here has a sense of _inclination_ or _feeling_. So, in the first example, it
could be more literally translated as

> You're feeling like running away, right.

The last example you could translate as

> What do you want to become?

_want_ is a bit strong. 気 has a much more vague meaning. If you said something
like

> する気になった

You might say that in English as "I got it into my head to do..."

Generally, 気 has a very broad range of meanings.

I find online dictionaries rather clunky at times. If you know what you're
looking for, they work. But if you want to get a better feel for the nuance of
things, they're just not very well organized for that purpose.

I would suggest digging out an old paper [和英辞典]{わえいじてん} and looking at the
examples listed. Even though my Obunsha dictionary is over 30 years old, it's
still pretty good for perusing and getting a feel for the variety and shades
of meanings for more idiomatic words, particularly words like 気.

