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<title>Expressing "mistakenly think that" with "yiwei"</title>
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<h1>Expressing "mistakenly think that" with "yiwei"
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<p>We often have mistaken beliefs about various topics. With this article, we learn how to express them in Chinese!</p>

<h2>Contents</h2>

  
<div class="contents"><ul><li><span style="font-size: 20px;">1 Structure </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">2 Examples </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">3 See also </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">4 </span><span style="font-size: 20px;">Sources and further reading </span></li>
<ul><li><span style="font-size: 20px;">4.1 Books</span></li>
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<h3>Structure</h3>

<p>In English, the verb "to think" can imply that the belief is incorrect, e.g. in "I thought it was legal here." Chinese has a specific verb for this kind of mistaken belief: 以为 (yǐwéi). Literally these two characters mean "take to be," i.e. someone takes one thing to be something else.
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<div class="deux">Subj. + 以为 ⋯⋯</div>

<p>The phrase will be a whole new statement that is actually incorrect.
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<h3>Examples</h3>

<div class="exemple"><ul><li><span style="font-size: 20px;">我 以为 他 是 英国 人 。
Wǒ yǐwéi tā shì Yīngguó rén.
I thought he was British. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">我们 以为 你 不 在 家 。
Wǒmen yǐwéi nǐ bù zài jiā .
We thought you weren't at home. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">同事 们 都 以为 我 二十 岁 。
Tóngshì men dōu yǐwéi wǒ èrshí suì.
My colleagues all thought I was twenty. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">我们 都 以为 你 生气 了 。
Wǒmen dōu yǐwéi nǐ shēngqì le.
We all thought you were angry. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">老师 以为 学生 都 听懂 了 。
Lǎoshī yǐwéi xuéshēng dōu tīngdǒng le.
The teacher thought all the students understood. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">大家 都 以为 他 是 大 老板 。
Dàjiā dōu yǐwéi tā shì dà lǎobǎn.
Everybody thought he was the big boss. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">她 是 你 外婆 ？我 以为 是 你 妈妈 。
Tā shì nǐ wàipó? Wǒ yǐwéi shì nǐ māma.
She's your grandma? I thought she was your mother. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">你 去 吃 四川 火锅 了 ？我 以为 你 不 爱 吃 辣 。
Nǐ qù chī Sìchuān huǒguō le? Wǒ yǐwéi nǐ bù ài chī là.
You went to eat Sichuan hotpot? I thought you don't like eating spicy food. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">你们 分手 了 ？我 以为 你们 还 在一起 。
Nǐmen fēnshǒu le? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">Wǒ yǐwéi nǐmen hái zài yīqǐ.
You guys broke up? I thought you were still together. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">我 看到 那 张 照片 ，以为 你 有 男朋友 了 。
Wǒ kàndào nà zhāng zhàopiàn, yǐwéi nǐ yǒu nánpéngyou le.
I saw that picture and I thought you had a boyfriend.</span><br/></li>
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<h3>See also</h3>

<div class="See-also"><ul><li><span style="font-size: 20px;">Result complement "-cuo"</span><br/></li>
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<h3>Sources and further reading
</h3>
<h4>Books</h4>

<div class="See-also"><ul><li><span style="font-size: 20px;">Short-term Spoken Chinese: Elementary (汉语口语速成基础篇) (pp. 106) [ →buy] </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 20px;">Contemporary Chinese 4 (当代中文4) (pp. 31) →buy</span><br/></li>
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