πιστεύω vs. νομίζω

[ehsawy]

What's the difference between πιστεύω and νομίζω? Wiktionary and WR Dictionary both say they can mean "to think / believe".

 

[Paulfromitaly]

Please give us a context.

Context and Background

Thank you.

 

[ehsawy]

This is the sentence where I found it: Πιστεύω υπάρχει μια εφαρμογή που μπορεί να το εντοπίσει.

Then I typed in "What do you think?" in Google translate and it came up with - Τι νομίζετε;

I checked the meanings of both words in the WR dictionary and Wiktionary, and they both said "to think / believe", so I'm actually just wondering about how these meanings compare for these two words in general.

 

[Perseas]

"Πιστεύω" normally expresses a higher degree of certainty than "νομίζω". However, sometimes they may be used interchangeably, specially in spoken language. "Πιστεύω" roughly corresponds to "believe" and "νομίζω" to "think", but I can't be totally sure about the use of English verbs.

 

[bearded]

In English, the verb πιστεύω can ( sometimes) also be rendered with 'trust' (as in "I trust that..."), since it is connected with the noun 'pistis(AG)/pisti(MG) = faith. Therefore originally "I have faith" (that...).

Cf. WordRef.Dictionary (Engl.-Greek):

trust, trust that vtr

(with clause: =be confident) (ότι/πως)

πιστεύω ρ μ

 

[Perseas]

In that case, I guess that "I trust that ..." can indeed be rendered with "πιστεύω ότι ...", but the verb "trust" mainly corresponds to "εμπιστεύομαι"(German "vertrauen"), which also comes from "πίστις".

 

[Konstantinos]

I think in One God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

Νομίζω εἰς ἕνα Θεόν, Πατέρα, Παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων.

They both sound fully off.

One more example that νομίζω sounds very off:

Αυτή είναι μια πολύ δύσκολη κατάσταση και χρειάζεται πολύ λεπτομερή ανάλυση. Τι νομίζεις;

Αυτή είναι μια πολύ δύσκολη κατάσταση και χρειάζεται πολύ λεπτομερή ανάλυση. Τι πιστεύεις;

Επίσης συνοπτικά αποφεύγεται:

Εχθές το βράδυ για μια στιγμή νόμισα ότι δεν με αγαπάει.

Εχθές το βράδυ για μια στιγμή πίστεψα ότι δεν με αγαπάει.

But I cannot find an example in which the "νομίζω" can be used, but not the "πιστεύω".

 

[Αγγελος]

I don't quite agree with Konstantinos. I think both sentences he marks as wrong or unidiomatic are perfectly possible:
Αυτή είναι μια πολύ δύσκολη κατάσταση και χρειάζεται πολύ λεπτομερή ανάλυση. Τι νομίζεις;
Εχθές το βράδυ για μια στιγμή νόμισα ότι δεν με αγαπάει.
Wouldn't you say "νόμισα πως ήρθε το τέλος μου"?

But of course πιστεύω σε is the only possible equivalent for 'I believe in'.

Tι λες; is also a possible equivalent of "What do you think?"