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I understand the meaning of something such as 食べたつもりで寝る。My idea of this is "I go to sleep convinced that I've eaten". Or along those lines.

In the book I'm using, the following, similar phrase has been used but I can't make heads nor tails of it:

優しく言ったつもりでも「~しなさい」と聞こえ、「~しなさい」と言っても優しさが伝わる。

What role does the も play here? My best understanding is: "[~shinasai] was said kindly (at least the speaker was convinced this to be the case)", and then even though he used [~shinasai], it was relayed as a kind message. I understand that to be the meaning of 言っても, but confused with the reason behind using 言ったつもりでも over 言ったつもりで. Any help is appreciated :) .

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You can see it as two sentences: "優しく言ったつもりでも「~しなさい」と聞こえ(る)" and "「~しなさい」と言っても優しさが伝わる。"

「優しく言ったつもりでも」
--> Even though you meant to say (or ask) something gently/mildly,

「『~しなさい』と聞こえ、」
--> it can sound as "しなさい", i.e. it can sound as a command (rather than a request) (just as in the example of the train announcement), whereas...

「『~しなさい』と言っても」
--> even though you (literally) say "しなさい",

「優しさが伝わる。」
--> your kindness can be felt; it can sound as a mild request (rather than a command) (just as in the example of the mothers saying しなさい to their kids).

The も in ~つもりで means "even though" or "even when".

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  • 全文はここを見ました: sapnew.com/116.html
    – chocolate
    Apr 25, 2016 at 17:35
  • Thank you, that gave light to a lot more than I had expected it to. From your answer, it seems ~たつもり also means "To have intended ~" as well as "convinced one had ~"? In that case how is it different to ~るつもりだった? It may be my initial understanding of つもり is to blame here. Apr 26, 2016 at 8:22
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    「したつもりだ」 is like "I believe I did~" "I think I did~", and 「するつもりだった」 is like "I intended to do~ / I was going to do~ (but probably failed to do so)". So, more literally, 「優しく言ったつもりだ」 is like "You think you said gently." (Sorry if my translation "meant to say.." was not accurate..)
    – chocolate
    Apr 26, 2016 at 8:49
  • Thank you. Last thing to make sure I fully understand, 「コーヒーを一杯飲んだつもりで電車に乗った。」. My previous understanding of this was "convinced he had drank coffee, boarded the train", but could it mean "he had intended to drink coffee, but instead boarded the train"? I feel the latter would use 飲むつもりだったが~, but want to double check. Apr 26, 2016 at 8:55
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    Oh yes, the ~だつもりで in that sentence is a bit different usage than simple "I think I did". It can be rephrased as 「コーヒーを飲んだつもりになって / 飲んだ気持ちになって」. I think it's like "Pretending to have spent the money for a cup of coffee, I spent 500 yen on my train ticket", "I took the train (= bought the train ticket), telling myself that I would just have spent the 500 yen on my coffee."
    – chocolate
    Apr 26, 2016 at 10:36

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