Creer and Pensar

Question

If I were to speak in Spanish would I confuse the person I am speaking to if I accidently said creo instead of pienso and vice versa???? Or do these words need to be completely accurate in context to be understood. I know that creer is "to believe" and pensar "to think", but sometimes I use one of them not knowing if I should use the other????????

Answer 1

I asked a similar question a few months ago and received some good answers. You can check it out by clicking on the link below.

Creo vs Pienso

Answer 2

They are close enough that you'd be understood in most situations.

I've learned that "creer" is used a lot more often for sentences that would use the word "I think/I believe." For example, "I think she's at the store," "I believe that I am correct," "I don't think so."

The word "pensar" relates more to the process of thinking. For example, "I think about you all the time," "I was thinking about my job," etc.

• Ok thanks for that..... - mike123587 Jul 2, 2010

Answer 3

Living here in Mexico, we always use "creo que sí" to mean "I think so".