Nekojarashi
May/June 1999 No.19
|
|
Learning Japanese
「思う」「考える」
The two verbs, 思う(OMOU) and 考える(KANGAERU) are alike. In Japanese-English dictionaries, the first entries
for 思う and 考える are bpth "think".
1) 彼女は美人だと思う(KANOJO WA BIJINDATO OMOU)
I 思う she is beautiful.
2) 彼女は美人だと考える(KANOJO WA BIJINDATO KANGAERU)
I 考える she is beautiful.
1) has almost the same meaning as 2), but 1) and 2) are slightly different in nuance.
Now, here are some questions. Fill in the blanks with eather 思う or 考える.
1 問題(MONDAI, a problem) を __________
2 亡き母(NAKIHAHA, one's dead mother) を ___________
With this, can you understand slightly different nuance of 1) and 2)?
思う (OMOU): used when an image comes into one's mind
考える (KANGAERU: is put one's thought into shape
We have tried to classify the following verbs in English into two groups, 思う and 考える.
思う ： imagine, suppose, guess, feel --- subjectivity
考える ： consider, judge, expect --- objectivity
to express it in an extreme way ...