Søndagsspørsmål #13 - Sunday Question Thread

[u/dwchandler]

This is a weekly (heh) post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

Past posts:

• Søndagsspørsmål #12 - det/den, jus/lov/rettsvitenskap, bergensdialecten

• Søndagsspørsmål #11 - rural dialects, å ville, broren sin

• Søndags spørsmål - døgn/dag, han/ham

• Søndagsspørsmål #10 - tidligere/forrige/før

• Søndagsspørsmål #9 - an

• Søndagsspørsmål #8 - conditionals, trådte

• Søndagsspørsmål #7 - grunn

• Søndagsspørsmål #6 - past tense

• Søndagsspørsmål #5 - ennå/enda, herlig/nydelig/deilig/pen, fremdeles/fortsatt, begge/begge to/begge deler

• Søndagsspørsmål #4 - concatenating words, ått, lik/like, nettopp/nett

• Søndagsspørsmål #3 - Dialects

• Søndagsspørsmål #2 - Definite articles

• Søndagsspørsmål #1 - How easy is Norwegian to learn, really?

Note: if it's been more than a day or two since this post then new questions might not be noticed here, and you should consider posting a separate thread.

[u/TaliTek]

What's the difference between 'Jeg tror' and 'Jeg synes'? I can't seem to work it out.

[u/letsdownvote → u/TaliTek]

Like you probably realized, they both translate to "I think" in English.

"Jeg tror" is an objective "I think" as in "Jeg tror jeg har mistet bilnøklene mine", "Jeg har ikke en klokke, men jeg tror klokken er 2 nå." and "Jeg tror/tror ikke statsministeren gjør en god jobb." They're all dependent on neutral, objective observations for why you believe so and so.

"Jeg synes" is what you subjectively observe. "Jeg synes brokkoli smaker vondt", "Jeg synes at Tom Cruise er en god skuespiller" and "Jeg synes at lange bilturer er koselige.". "Jeg synes" can also be used if you notice a change in something but aren't too sure about it: "Kristian, jeg synes du har blitt tynnere..!" You can also say "Jeg tror" because it still translates to "I think" here, but "synes" creates a subtle nuance that tells the receiver that before his slimness is an objective truth, this is more a personal opinion from the observer.

[u/TaliTek → u/letsdownvote]

Tusen takk! I think I understand now :)