と, 考える/ 思う

If I wanted to ask my friend, "have you seen this film? For some reason I always think of you when I watch it", would this be correct:

この映画を観たことあるのか？私は観ると何だかいつもあなたを(考える)?

I'm not used to writing, so my questions are:

Should you always use 観 to refer to watching something on the TV?

Is 考える or 思う more suitable here? I got the impression 思う is more "I think/ feel that..." while 考える is "to think about" (which is what I'm going for here.)

When と is being used to express habit, the verb (here 考える) stays in the dictionary form, right? It doesn't become ている?

And in a question like "have you done ____", is ことがある always used? I've also seen the 'が' dropped in sentences like mine.

Rinilex said:

この映画を観たことあるのか？

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この映画見たことある？ is more natural when just asking whether the addresse has seen it or not. のか adds a nunace of confirming to it, as if you have doubts about it. Plus, it's mostly used by male.

Rinilex said:

Should you always use 観 to refer to watching something on the TV?

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Not always. 見 is also used. Generally, 観 has a nuance similar to "to watch".

Rinilex said:

Is 考える or 思う more suitable here? I got the impression 思う is more "I think/ feel that..." while 考える is "to think about" (which is what I'm going for here.)

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考える is better than 思う, but I would use 思い出す, 思いつく or 思い浮かぶ instead.

Rinilex said:

When と is being used to express habit, the verb (here 考える) stays in the dictionary form, right?

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As for a present habit, yes. The past form shows it's a past habit.

Rinilex said:

It doesn't become ている?

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考えている is also correct, but you can't use 思いついている. It depends on the type of the verb (durative, punctual or state).

Rinilex said:

And in a question like "have you done ____", is ことがある always used? I've also seen the 'が' dropped in sentences like mine.

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が or を are often omitted in colloquial conversation.


my attempt:
この映画見たことある？これ見るとどういうわけかいつもあなたのこと思い出すんだよね。

1) So you don't always need a question particle at the end of the sentence? This would be a written question, by the way. And since I'm female, I should be going with just の？Instead of のか？I didn't know there was a gender difference there.

2) Thank you! I haven't come across the latter two words before.

どういうわけか = "for some reason", then? I've always been confused by か in the middle of a sentence, I've seen it a few times...

But if I were to make this polite (I'm trying to come to grips with when to use the polite form in sentences), would the sentence change a great deal?

この映画見たことありますか？これ見るとどういうわけかいつもあなたのこと思い出しますよね。(思い出すのです?)

Would you include the dropped particles, or does that not affect politeness?

Sometimes I feel a lot like I'm putting the -ます form too much and it sounds off. Do you have any advice for sounding polite, but natural?

Rinilex said:

どういうわけか = "for some reason", then? I've always been confused by か in the middle of a sentence, I've seen it a few times...

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Mid-sentence か happens for two reasons that I think are somewhat different,
Embedded questions,
ジョンが来るかどうかわからない -> I don't know if John is coming (here) or not.
But it also happens the way you correctly understood with どういうわけか； this is really something you see all the time -
いつか 'sometime', だれか、 'someone', どこか 'somewhere' ... They are words on their own now, but they were coined by following this 'question word + か' grammar.
なぜか also becomes 'some reason'.
どういうわけか being a question phrase instead of a question word makes it slightly harder to see but it's the same pattern.

(I'm not sure that these two grammars are actually -that- different... I feel like there's a parallel in the way か changes question and non-question phrases, but I'm not clever enough to explain it.)

の is the female version of のか. It has a confirming tone, too. (This の is the same as so-called explanatory の.)

この映画を見たことがありますか。 is a formal one. この映画見たことあります？ is also polite, but is used in the closer relation than the previous one. So, it depends on the relation between you and the addressee.

To drop particles makes the sentences sound colloquial.

my attempt again:
この映画を見たことがありますか。これを見るとなぜかいつもあなたのことを思い出します。
この映画見たことあります？これを見るとどういうわけかいつもあなたのことを思い出すんです。


Polite forms can't be used in an embedded question. Also, か is always used even for a question-word question.

○ジョンは来ますか
☓ジョンが来ますかどうかわかりません

○いつ来るかわからない
☓いつ来るか (This can be used in a context, though.)

Toritoribe said:

Also, か is always used even for a question-word question.

○いつ来るかわからない
☓いつ来るか (This can be used in a context, though.)

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Is this what you meant to write? It seems contradictory.

Oh, I should have written "か is always used in an embedded question even for a question-word question".

Whew! I was about to have a meltdown when I saw that. "WHAT AM I MISSING HERE??" haha