"What do the experts think?"
Translation:Was meinen die Experten?
31 Comments
"Meinen" should have been introduced to us as a new word first I'm thinking.
I've never come across 'meinen' both in Duo and outside of it. Duo does accept "Was denken die Experten?" though, so it's all good.
I did a bit of research on 'meinen vs denken' and I think I get it now. Whilst there doesn't seem to be a HUGE difference, the best reasoning I found said that 'meinen' is used to express a thought or opinion, whereas 'denken' is used more literally in describing the process of thinking. It implies that you are still actively thinking as opposed to just expressing a resolved thought. Correct me if anyone finds more information, but I found that helpful to distinguish the two.
Yeah, "think" wasn't highlighted as a new word for me and I'm mostly certain that it wasn't introduced before. But I didn't want to peek (since it wasn't highlighted) so I went with "kennen", which is close but not quite right. And of course was marked wrong.
"Denken" is what you do using your brain, like "(to) think" in English. When used as a way to express your opinion you're claiming that these are your thoughts on the subject.
"Meinen" literally means "(to) mean", but in a context like this it can also be used to express your opinion about something.
"Finden" translates to "(to) find" and can be used similarly (though maybe not identically) in English, i.e. it is used to state an evaluation of something or a situation. I've the impression that "finden" is more common in this context than "(to) find" is in English.
Finally, "glauben" is "(to) believe" and is used when you think that something is true or probable.
In conclusion, all these verbs can be used to state an opinion, but they have different connotations.
Examples:
- "Ich denke, wir sollten zuerst Methode A probieren." - "I think we should try out method A first."
- "Was meinst du denn dazu?" - "So what do you think about that?"
- "Ich fand diesen Film ziemlich gut." - "I really liked this movie."
- "Ich glaube, du hast für heute schon genug getrunken." - "I think you've had enough (for tonight)."
I just looked up "think" in my dictionary and holy crap are there a lot of words for it! This is when i really wish i had a native German speaker in my life.
What my the experts?!?!! This makes no sense! Does "meinen" have another meaning outside of one of the translations for "my"? Thanks! :)
I can see why you might think that, and sometimes they can be, but not necessarily.
Can someone explain the difference in usage/meaning between meinen/denken/glauben? As I understand it, denken strictly means to think, whilst glauben and meinen can also mean to believe and to feel respectively. Is this a correct understanding?
