What's the difference between 気がする and ような気がする?

Question

Compare:

何かを忘れた気がする。
何かを忘れたような気がする。
I feel like I forgot something.

As far as I know, they both mean the same thing. What nuance does adding ような give?

Answer 1

Adding ような communicates that the speaker is even less sure. It's also used as a softener when you say something that's potentially negative.

E.g.

「お母さん、最近物忘れが多い気がする」
「お母さん、最近物忘れが多いような気がする」

A speaker might choose the latter phrasing just to soften the tone.

Answer 2

My understanding of the modifier ような on 気がする is that it functions as a "fuzzifier". It describes the sensation as being even vaguer, tentative and ballpark-ish than 気がする by itself already implies. The exaggerated "quasi-translations" below should hopefully illustrate the nuance I'm trying to hint at:

何かを忘れた気がする。

"I have a hunch that I've forgotten something."

何かを忘れたような気がする。

"I'm experiencing a sensation that I can't quite pinpoint, but it resembles the feeling of having forgotten something -- maybe I really have forgotten something, or maybe its something else, or maybe I'm just imagining things..."

Constructions like ような気がする are used quite often in day-to-day conversations, and are often used by the speaker to casually "cover their ass" in case what they say turns out to be nonsense -- or at least to me そのような気がする...

Answer 3

Check below links---

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=younakigasuru

http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/skills/grammar/sentences/?grammarid=437

http://friends-esl.com/phrase/phrase249.php

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=kigasuru

ような気がするadd the nuance expectation予感,予測or不確.

もう他に方法はないような気がする。 It's like there is no other way.