思います vs. 思っています

[Chouchoo]

みんなさん、今日は！
私は新しいメンバー(??)です。私の日本語は悪いだと思います。一門が聞い たいです。
OK, I do not feel myself confident enough to write more in Japanese, I have been learning it for one year now, but I have a question in my mind which my Japanese teacher can't really answer. What is the difference between 思います and 思っています？
What about if you would put those into the past form, would it still make some sense? Like 思っていました.
Thank you very much! ♥

 

[Glenn]

First, a few corrections: if you're going to say "I think [it's] bad" and use 悪い, you don't use だ, so you'd say 悪いと思います. But here 私の日本語はまだ上手じゃありません ("My Japanese still isn't good.") or 私の日本語は下手です ("My Japanese is bad."). You got the reading s right for いちもん, but the second character is missing a mouth: it should be 一問. Also, the "want to" form of 聞く is ききたい, but I'd probably say ちょっと訊きたいことがあるんですが. I used 訊 instead of 聞 beacause it has a meaning of "inquire", where 聞 also means "listen" and "hear", and I feel it makes things less ambiguous, but it's not a mistake to use 聞.

As far as 思う and 思っている go, generally speaking since the first one only points to one instance, one point in time, it can only being used for something that you think or feel, whereas the second one points to a state or ongoing action, so it can be used for things you are thinking or feeling and can also be used for things other people are thinking or feeling. So you can say （私は）これがいいと思う, but you can't say 彼はこれがいいと思う. You can, however, say 彼はこれがいいと思っている. Does that make sense? I hope it's not too much all at once.

 

[Chouchoo]

Uh-oh... If it is true what you said, then the Book called Genki which I'm learning from has got a mistake! It clearly says we have to use だと思います! :O Thank you so much for correcting my mistakes, it is greatly appreciated
And you are right on so much grammer parts, this is quite confidence losing... I got the て form with the たい form messed up...
OMG, I finally understand the difference between them, thank you so so much!! Don't worry, you can give me all the information you know about a question, I would like to speak Japanese one day nicely and every help is appreciated ♥ Again, thank you so much, you just made my day!

 

[undrentide]

The expression ～だと思います does exist, but it cannot be used with i-adjective (such as 悪い).
～だと思います is to be used with na-adjective or noun. ;-)

下手だと思います。 OK
あれは車だと思います。 OK
この本はいいだと思います。 NG

悪い is more like "wrong" or "evil" (depending on the context) and for a skill (e.g. speaking a language) 下手 is used as Glenn san mentioned.

がんばってくださいね。

 

[Rei Yahya]

Thank you, Chouchoo, for starting this thread, and Glenn and Undrentide for helping. It may not have been my question posed, but reading questions and answers is always very helpful to hammer things home for me.

 

[Sunny Sarn]

First, a few corrections: if you're going to say "I think [it's] bad" and use 悪い, you don't use だ, so you'd say 悪いと思います. But here 私の日本語はまだ上手じゃありません ("My Japanese still isn't good.") or 私の日本語は下手です ("My Japanese is bad."). You got the reading s right for いちもん, but the second character is missing a mouth: it should be 一問. Also, the "want to" form of 聞く is ききたい, but I'd probably say ちょっと訊きたいことがあるんですが. I used 訊 instead of 聞 beacause it has a meaning of "inquire", where 聞 also means "listen" and "hear", and I feel it makes things less ambiguous, but it's not a mistake to use 聞.

As far as 思う and 思っている go, generally speaking since the first one only points to one instance, one point in time, it can only being used for something that you think or feel, whereas the second one points to a state or ongoing action, so it can be used for things you are thinking or feeling and can also be used for things other people are thinking or feeling. So you can say （私は）これがいいと思う, but you can't say 彼はこれがいいと思う. You can, however, say 彼はこれがいいと思っている. Does that make sense? I hope it's not too much all at once.

If someone ask me about my Japanese efficiency. If I reply him, なんとか大丈夫だと思っています。Is it weird? Please correct my Japanese. Many thanks.

 

[Toritoribe]

思っています is not wrong, but 思います is more natural.
I would judge that you are somewhat confident with your Japanese skills by that reply.

 

[Sunny Sarn]

思っています is not wrong, but 思います is more natural.
I would judge that you are somewhat confident with your Japanese skills by that reply.

Thank you for your advise. I do agree with you. 思っているin this case seems to be not natural.