ふりをする

1. 1To pretend not to do or not to be something when in fact one does or is.Ex. 1
2. 2To pretend to do or be something when in fact one does not or is not.Ex. 2

A neutral, everyday expression used in both conversation and writing to describe intentional deception or feigned behavior, often to dodge a situation or hide one's true feelings. Unlike ように見える or とみえる, which describe how things appear or what the speaker infers, ふりをする always implies a conscious act by the person pretending.

• ぶるN1「ぶる」 attaches only to nouns and adjective stems (e.g. 「偉ぶる」), not verbs, and carries a critical, negative nuance of putting on airs or acting a part; 「ふりをする」 is neutral pretending with broader attachment. The two are generally not interchangeable.
• さもN1「さも」 is a literary adverb that must pair with expressions like 「かのように」 or 「そうに」 to describe something looking 'just as if...' or 'truly...'; 「ふりをする」 is a verb phrase for the subject's deliberate pretending, so they cannot be directly swapped.
• つもりでN3「つもりで」 means acting with a certain intention in mind or treating something as if it were the case in one's own mind; the focus is on one's own thinking, not performing for others. It overlaps with 「ふりをする」 only in the 'treating as' sense and is generally not interchangeable.
• がるN4「がる」 describes a third person showing emotions, feelings, or desires in their words and behavior, regardless of whether they truly feel that way, and does not emphasize deliberate pretense. For example, 「怖がる」 is appearing scared, while 「怖いふりをする」 is pretending to be scared; they cannot be swapped.
• ように見えるN4With 「ふりをする」, the mismatch between appearance and reality is artificially created by the subject pretending for others to see; 「ように見える」 is the speaker's judgment or metaphor based on appearance, with no sense of deliberate pretense, so the two cannot be interchanged. They share the same attachment pattern.
• とみえる / とみえてN3「とみえる」 is the speaker's inference that 'it appears that...' based on signs, with no nuance of pretending; 「ふりをする」 is the subject's deliberate acting, so they cannot be interchanged. 「とみえる」 takes 「だ」 after nouns and な-adjectives and is mostly used in writing.

ぶる attaches to nouns and adjectives to mean putting on airs, usually with a negative nuance, and さも is an adverb meaning 'as if'. つもりで describes one's own mindset rather than deceiving others, がる describes someone's visible signs of a feeling (whether or not the feeling is real) without itself asserting deliberate pretense, and ように見える and とみえる express appearance or inference, not deliberate pretense.