Get the appGet the app
Japanese frequency list

No. 315 in Japanese

つい

"Unintentionally" or "inadvertently."

In a sentence

  • ついさっき彼に会いました。

    I just met him a moment ago.

    Here, 'つい' emphasizes brevity of time, meaning 'just' or 'a moment ago'.

  • 甘いものを見ると、つい食べてしまいます。

    When I see sweets, I inadvertently end up eating them.

    In this sentence, 'つい' expresses an unintended action, such as doing something without thinking.

  • つい忘れてしまうことがあります。

    I sometimes accidentally forget it.

    Here, 'つい' again reflects an unintended or accidental action, suggesting it happens by mistake.

Hear it in real podcasts

The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “つい” in actual Japanese podcasts.

Find “つい” in podcasts

Learn it from shows you like

LangTurbo plays Japanese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

Learning English?

LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 日本語, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.

Japanese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).