tetiana
“I don’t think so” in Japanese? So we’ve been covering a lesson that’s all about expressing your thoughts in Japanese with “~to omoimasu”: -Rao-san wa Senta ni inai to omoimasu; -Konban ame ga furu to omoimasu; -Watashi mo sou omoimasu; -Nohon ni tsuite dou omoimasu ka? When asking my teacher how to make a negative “I don’t think so”, he said it doesn’t exist in Japanese language. As he explained: if you say it in negative ”Watashi mo sou omowanai“ it would mean you have no thoughts in your head at all. Is that really true?
2020년 2월 18일 오후 11:32
답변 · 6
3
No. If you want to say “I don’t think so” in Japanese, you can use 思わない. 思う is the dictionary form and 思わない is negative form.
2020년 2월 19일
My pleasure.
2020년 2월 19일
My teacher is great for the most part! But what I noticed is that he really likes to exaggerate some things to bring more contrast to the language differences. So he would often say Smth like “in Japanese language there’s no such thing as [*smth that is common for our language*]” “In Japan they never say/use [*something that we say/use*]”. I always take it with a grain of salt, but this (~to omoimasu) example really sparked my curiosity. Thank you for your answers!
2020년 2월 19일
(Watashi wa) sou (wa) omowanai = I don't think so.
2020년 2월 19일
It is really a pity that you don't have a good teacher. What he said is NOT true at all. /In that case, you usually just say " (私は) そう (は) 思わない", which means exactly the same as "I don't think so.".
2020년 2월 19일
아직도 답을 찾지 못하셨나요?
질문을 남겨보세요. 원어민이 도움을 줄 수 있을 거예요!