"I think the same thing as you."
Translation:Yo pienso lo mismo que tú.
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What's the difference between "lo mismo" and "el mismo" in this situation, and why is the former correct?
"El mismo" means "the same," whereas "lo mismo" means "the same thing." ...I think.
A friend gave me a couple of examples, though I'm not sure whether they confirm or deny what you said..
No importa cual auto elijas, es lo mismo, seguro es re trucho - it doesn't matter which car you choose, it's the same, surely it will be very bad.
Este error es el mismo que este otro - this error is the same as this other one.
I think the problem is that in English we say "the same" for two separate concepts, both 'there's no practical difference between these two things' and 'these two things are identical', and in Spanish there are two forms.
In the first example, 'lo mismo' means 'la misma cosa'. In the second one 'el mismo' means 'el mismo error', it doesn't mean 'la misma cosa'
This example helped me, thanks. However why does the gender switch, between 'la misma cosa' and 'lo mismo'? If 'lo mismo' was feminine, couldn't that be 'la misma' which would still mean 'la misma cosa'?
It's "I think the same thing as you [think]." The "tú" here is the subject of a second implied phrase.
Thanks for this. This is one of those subtle implied phrases, that I am not sure I will ever pick up on.
My experience was that when I was learning Spanish (and a smidge of Latin and German), from middle school up through university, comparing how different languages handled things like this greatly deepened my understanding of what was going on in English. I didn't really understand the difference between "who" and "whom" until I learned German's "wer / wen / wem".
Some of the rules seem arbitrary at first, but if you just keep using the language and comparing stuff, not only do they start to make intuitive sense, you start explicitly understanding some of the weird usage rules you already knew implicitly about your native tongue. :-)
I absolutely agree. I cannot say I had even a basic working knowledge of what was going on in English until I started learning Spanish. Learning Spanish has given me a greater appreciation of language in general, and quite probably improved my English.
I was just thinking this while going through this lesson. Everyone's insight Is great.
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"Some of the rules seem arbitrary at first, but if you just keep using the language and comparing stuff, not only do they start to make intuitive sense, you start explicitly understanding some of the weird usage rules you already knew implicitly about your native tongue."
Same experience for me, except I was learning French from grade 4 up to university. :-)
MarkofSky. Good question. Took me a while to confirm that 'lo mismo que' is in fact a compound preposition and 'you' is the object of that preposition therefore 'ti' does indeed seem appropiate.
No, "lo mismo que" is not a "compound preposition". "Lo mismo" is an abstract noun phrase, with "lo" being a determiner (same family as "the", "a", and others), and "mismo" is an adjective that's basically being noun-ified in context. The part-of-speech for "que" is... debatable. It's the same as the "that" in, "I think the same thing that you think." Merriam-Webster considers it a conjunction; some linguists further divide its functions, identifying separate usages ("compartmentalizer" or "subordinating conjuction" versus "relativizer", depending on whether you're talking about a subordinate or relative clause).
In any case, "ti" is wrong here, because the "you" is the subject of an implied clause, not the object of any verb or preposition.
You only need the "personal a" if you're dealing with an object. The "you" at the end of this sentence is not an object; it's the subject of an implied second clause. "I think the same thing as you [think]."
There is a lot more to mismo than I thought. It can be an adjective, pronoun or adverb. Here's a link to read more if you are the curious type like myself.
Great link. It contains the following statement: "The singular neuter form, lo mismo, typically means 'the same thing'".
Why is my answer of "Los mismo" incorrect? Is it not supposed to be pluralized.
Should "Pienso igual que tu" be acceptable? Or even with the voseo form, "Pienso igual que vos".
"creo la misma cosa como tú" marked correct. I really didn't think duo would accept and i'm skeptical as to whether or not that would make sense to a native speaker...
A native speaker tells me that this could be ok but sounds a bit strange.
Trust me It didn't seem right to me even (looking at it now I don't even know if la is correct or if misma is but I guess it is unless the native speaker you know corrected any of it possibly?). I'm guessing even with pienso it would sound odd since "lo mismo que" is an idiom I believe. I'm somewhat surprised it was even understandable and I won't keep it in the memory banks. Thanks.
Lo oigo is "I hear it", lo pienso is "I think it". Could you be confusing lo (it) with yo (I)?
As ricky_clarkson says, you seem to be confusing the use of "lo" as an object pronoun, with its use as a neuter article, to turn adjectives into nouns. See the second class of uses here: http://spanish.about.com/od/sentencestructure/a/lo.htm
"Lo mismo" translates as something like "the same (abstract) thing(s)". You can do the same thing (heh) with other adjectives. So, "lo mejor" means "the best (thing)", "lo blanco" might in some contexts mean "white things" as a class, etc.
And then there's the "lo [adj] que" construction... http://spanish.about.com/od/adjectives/a/lo_unusual.htm
This is a very confusing sentence. Why is the object 'lo' not before the verb as the lesson hints said it would be? The only verb I can see is 'pienso', so why isn't it 'lo pienso'?
I'd argue that "yo creo" is actually a better translation for most contexts where I can imagine using that English sentence.
"Creer" means "to think" in the sense of "to believe". Pensar connotes the act of thinking, as in an exchange like, "Come on, make a decision!" "Wait a sec, I'm thinking!"
If I say "I think the same as you," it means I hold the same belief about something -- hence, "yo creo", not "yo pienso".
I think (heh) that "pensar en" is "to think about" or "to contemplate". OTOH, "pensar que" could be used for something like "I think that", but would suggest that what you're talking about is an opinion rather than an assertion about objective reality. If you're talking about your beliefs about reality, "creer que" would probably be a better choice.
http://spanish.about.com/od/usingparticularverbs/qt/using_pensar.htm http://spanish.about.com/od/usingparticularverbs/a/creer.htm
Why you always change the words? I write it correctly but it always ended wrong. :-(
I wrote "Yo pienso la misma como tu" but it was considered incorrect. Would it not be correct if I was talking to a female?
