Different forms of 思い　and 想い.
 

Hello I was wondering if anyone could point out the difference between 想い　and 思い. If there are any.

Such as which is more commonly used for thought. And same with feelings.

I know it can mean a range of similar words. But I was wondering what is the most common translation of them.

Just a bit confusing, since the words are a bit vague in there dictionary meanings.

I assume the context of the sentence dictates it's meaning.

The most important difference between the two is that only 思い is "officially" correct. You will not see 想い in textbooks, newspapers (tabloids excluded), business writing, etc. You would be corrected if you used 想い in schools.

想い, however, is used VERY often in prose, poetry, song lyrics, personal letters, etc. It's used so frequently that even us native speakers tend to forget that we actually never learned it in school.

These are the reasons that it's not very easy to say which one is used more often. The two are used in different places. The choice is really left with each writer and all we can discuss are "tendencies", not "strict rules".

The general, loose rule of thumb might be as follows:

Use 思 for simpler thoughts and guesses.

明日は雨が降ると思う。
あの映画はすごいと思った。

You may opt for 想 for something of great personal value.

あなたを想って３年になります。
２２世紀の日本の事を想うと不安です。

Nice, thank you for clearing that up for me.

Something I failed to understand. From all my studying I never ran into an explanation for this.