"I think John will come to school today."

Translation: ジョンは今日学校に来ると思います。

[Yaser595449]

In most sentences we've been able to put the time / date at the beginning of the sentence - is there a reason we can't here (i.e "kyo John wa gakou ni"?)

[deepfriedmcrib]

Placing 「今日」at the beginning of the sentence means that on this day you have the thought that John will come to school as opposed to having that thought yesterday.

It's a bit nuanced but it becomes clear once you use two temporal adverbs in the same sentence: Today I think that Jon will come to school tomorrow.

[denimbluesky]

so rare to see 今日 not followed by は that this puzzled me for a moment
Thanks

[Ash770720]

I could be wrong but:

«...means that on this day you have thought...»

That is how the translation reads.

«...as opposed to having thought that yesterday.»

Would imply ending the sentence "思いました"

[mommarigo]

while bmpurifoy's explanation is great, Duo accepts "今日” at the beginning of the sentence. April 26, 2018.

[saliast]

No -san for じおんさん?

[BJCUAl]

He's not respected enough to deserve a さん.

[KeithWong9]

Possible reason is that John is the speaker's son or brother. When you refer your own family members to someone outside you do not add さん because it is impolite.

[saliast]

hmm no way to tell via the sentence. hm.. heh, I thought it was just in refering to yourself that you omit the -san but family too eh? k. thanks

[MtCarmel]

I find it curious that Mr. Tanaka or Mr. Honda is never someone's son or brother.
gaijin problems

[QOM_at_me]

Especially at the beginning I often saw mariasan and johnsan。
You can also just type tanaka instead of 田中さん. I think you're overanalysing a bit ;)

[November-06]

when do you use と思います and だと思います？

[deepfriedmcrib]

「だ」is the plain form of「です」so it would have to be preceded by a noun or adjective.

これは車だと思います。
I think that this is a car.

車はあ赤いだと思います。
I think that the car is red.

彼は昼ご飯を車の中に食べると思います。
I think that he eats lunch in his car.

[Rk5I3]

I'm sorry to correct you, but no だ for i-adjectives. It should be only 赤いと思います. (Also an unnecessary あ is seen.)

For na-adjectives: きれいだと思います。I think it's pretty/clean.

[elizadeux]

You can put any plain form of a verb or adjective before と思います.　

For verbs, that includes the dictionary form (such as いく or みる), ない negative form, plain past tense affirmative that usually ends in -た, or plain negative past tense なかった.

ジョンは今日学校に来ると思います。= I think that John will come to school today.

ジョンは今日学校に来たと思います。= I think that John came to school today.

ジョンは今日学校に来ないと思います。= I think that John didn't come to school today.

[julien748836]

So do you always use plain/casual/informal form in quoted or と phrases such as when you think, say, or ask something? Would it be odd to do "ジョンは今日学校に来ますと思います"? Or "ジョンはきれいですと思います"

[Rk5I3]

Grammatically, to both questions, yes.

Sometimes people use です/ます unnecessarily when being extremely polite, but I feel like this will never have other than the plain form before と思います even then.