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I'm a beginner with Japanese, also I'm not a native english speaker, and I'm struggling with things like this since long ago: I learned basic use of particles and currently I can understand several sentences when I know the vocabulary they use, but I can't understand the meaning if use と or even に before は in some sentences like the one I use here：

新しい政策はあまり良いとは思えません。

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    Do you understand the usage of と in this sentence if は was removed?
    – katatahito
    May 11, 2020 at 23:40
  • Hi @katatahito yes I can understand more or less the meaning but I can't understand the difference between using と or not using it in this sentece.
    – mihaeru keru
    May 13, 2020 at 20:52

1 Answer 1

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  1. 良いと思う - I think it's good.
  2. 良いと思わない - I think it is not good.
  3. 良いとは思えない - I'd rather to say that it is not good.

In these cases, と is the way of saying 〜だと思う, but after an adjective e.g. 良い、悪い、美しい
the letter だ must be removed.

The nuances:
〜と思わない is a clear and simple response "No, it's not."
While, 〜とは思えない implies "I hate/hesitate to say" or "If you need my decision now..." Japanese people almost always choose 〜とは思えない for the cases 'what if it's good for others' and 〜と思わない is used for the thing obviously wrong for everyone.

For example,

新しい車だと思う
新しいと思う

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  • Thanks a lot for the answer and the extra information, I think I can understand it, but the difference is so small for my point of view that I think it'll become difficult to know in which situation I should use. I'll take note of this.
    – mihaeru keru
    May 13, 2020 at 20:48
  • @mihaerukeru, I'll add per your request.
    – user34216
    May 13, 2020 at 22:14

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