In English, the phrase I was going for was “I would think”. It’s correct in English, and means mostly the same thing as “I think”, with slightly different connotations. I’m not exactly sure how to verbalise what those connotations are, just that in this case it felt better.
Obviously, “je croirais” is the correct literal translation of “I would think”. But does it not work to carry a similar connotation in French? Unfortunately my French knowledge is almost entirely academic, so knowing how to use it with more nuance than literal word-for-word changes is a bit beyond me, outside of where that is obviously academically inappropriate.
You would need to add a condition to conjugate it that way so it becomes a conditionnel présent, but would is a past action, but coloqually you are still under this belief, so I thought it was best to just assume that the present simple was best for your answer.
However you could say you were going for the futur antérieur, but would is in the past…
Zagorath@aussie.zone 7 months ago
In English, the phrase I was going for was “I would think”. It’s correct in English, and means mostly the same thing as “I think”, with slightly different connotations. I’m not exactly sure how to verbalise what those connotations are, just that in this case it felt better.
Obviously, “je croirais” is the correct literal translation of “I would think”. But does it not work to carry a similar connotation in French? Unfortunately my French knowledge is almost entirely academic, so knowing how to use it with more nuance than literal word-for-word changes is a bit beyond me, outside of where that is obviously academically inappropriate.
Mechaguana@programming.dev 7 months ago
You would need to add a condition to conjugate it that way so it becomes a conditionnel présent, but would is a past action, but coloqually you are still under this belief, so I thought it was best to just assume that the present simple was best for your answer.
However you could say you were going for the futur antérieur, but would is in the past…
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 7 months ago
IMO “Je croirais” is related to the verb “to believe”.
“I think” would most likely be translated to “Je pense”.
A thinker is a “penseur” in French.
So basically, you could end the sentence (or even better start it) with “Je pense”.
Here I would say “Je pense que [Insert doubtful info]”.
BenVimes@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
When I was learning French I was told penser and croire were interchangeable in this context.
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 7 months ago
The issue here is more the fact that “Je croirais” doesn’t exist.
It’s close to “Je croirai” which is simple futur (Futur simple).
So what you said is closer to "I will believe ".
The past tense that would work here would be :
“Je croyais que” (Imparfait).
But yeah you could say “Je croyais que” or “Je pensais que” both would be fine.
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Je croirais would more mean “I would believe” (conditional) as in “I’d believe it if I saw it myself”
In English it’s not conditional
Tetsuo@jlai.lu 7 months ago
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 7 months ago
You are very much mistaken
Mechaguana@programming.dev 7 months ago
It exists but there is no condition in what his said so the conditionnel cannot apply