我想...VS我觉得....

changye

Hi simon

"想" is a casual expression for "think", and "觉得" is "feel, guess, suppose", roughly speaking. You can use "相信" when you want to say "believe". "认为" (think/believe) is a relatively formal word that is used when you are sure about something.

simonpettersson

Thing is, saying that 想 means "to think" is way too general. The English word "think" is multi-faceted. It can mean heaps of stuff. The two most common ways to use it are to mean "I believe" and "it is my opinion that". Check this out:

"I think she's pretty": "握觉得她很漂亮".

"I think today is her birthday": "我想今天是她的生日"

In the first example, "I think" means "It is my opionion that" ("It is my opinion that she's pretty"). In this case, you can translate it as "觉得", but saying "我想她很漂亮" doesn't really work as a translation. Same thing, "我觉得今天是她的生日" is also off, because in this case "I think" is used to mean "I believe" ("I believe today is her birthday") and that's not how "觉得" is used.

So both 想 and 觉得 mean "to think", but neither of them maps directly to the English word. Thus, saying that 想 means "to think" is problematic, since "to think" doesn't always mean 想.

changye

Looks like I have to study English over from the basics, hehe.

xiaophil

Well, how about we summarize then.

我想 = I imagine that, I guess that, I reckon that, I believe that...

我觉得 = In my opinion... (but not as formal sounding)

我认为 = In my opinion... I consider... (this time formal)

How does everyone feel about that?

zhenlijiang

"It is my opinion that" can also be confusing!
For 觉得 I think (seems to me here you could use any of 想·觉得·认为 but may be more likely to choose 想 or 觉得) it's about how you feel (as Changye has also said), whether any amount of reasoning is involved or not. That's why we use 觉得 so often isn't it?

How about we examine more example sentences?

xiaophil

But actually there usually is a difference between 想 and 觉得 other than feeling. Usually 想 indicates something you believe to be true but have not verified. 觉得 indicates something you have determined your position. It's settled, at least for now.

For example:

* (I heard her lovely voice on the phone, and) 我想她很漂亮.

* (I saw her yesterday, and) 我觉得她很漂亮.

Or at least this is how my wife explained it. Sometimes she can't pinpoint differences very well because she is used to speaking the language, not analyzing it. Therefore, I would like some confirmation.

zhenlijiang

That sounds like a good explanation Xiaophil; I would also appreciate confirmation.
I didn't make my point too well I guess, which was that it's still confusing to say "in my opinion ..." because when you hear that you could still think the person is telling you what they've reasoned and are prepared to represent, not necessarily what they feel. And 我觉得她很漂亮 involves no reasoning. Well, maybe I'm confusing things now.

xiaophil

Oh, I see what you mean. I don't like using 'in my opinion' too much either and for the same reason. I'm not so certain 我觉得她很漂亮 doesn't ever involve reason, but it certainly sounds quite casual and less discerning than 'in my opinion'.