Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Today’s post looks at the various ways we talk about thinking, in the sense of using our brains to consider or understand something, or to solve a problem or plan something.
Starting with the verb ‘think’ itself, if you think long and hard about something, especially a difficult decision, you think carefully about it. If you think aloud/out loud, you say your thoughts as you think them (rather than considering them first):
The government should think long and hard before taking such a huge step.
Bear with me – I’m just thinking aloud.
As well as saying that we think about a subject, we can say that we give a subject some thought, or put some thought into a subject:
I confess, I haven’t really given the matter much thought.
We need to put some thought into how exactly we’re going to fund this.
Moving on, a very common near-synonym for ‘think’ is the verb consider. To consider something is to spend time thinking about it, often before making a decision. The verb contemplate can be used in a similar way, but it is slightly more emphatic:
We considered selling the apartment.
I’m considering my options at the moment.
I’ve been contemplating a move abroad.
Even during the difficult times, I never once contemplated ending the relationship.
The verbs ponder, meditate, muse and ruminate all mean ‘think seriously about a subject for a long time’. They are all formal words.
I’m just pondering my next move.
Alone, I found myself meditating on the passing of time.
I was musing over what James had said at lunch.
He sat quietly, ruminating over her words to him.
Two more synonyms for ‘think’ have rather negative connotations. If you brood or brood about/over/on something that happened, you think for too long about it and it makes you sad, anxious or angry. If you agonize over/about something, often a decision, you spend too much time thinking about it, unable to decide what to do:
There’s no point sitting there brooding!
Three months later, he was still brooding over the missed opportunity.
She’s still agonizing over whether to take the job.
I’ll leave you with a phrase that I’d love to hear translated into your language. Your train of thought is the particular way that one of your thoughts leads to another. We say that something ‘interrupts’ our train of thought when it suddenly stops this process, and when we suddenly forget what links different thoughts, we say that we ‘lose’ our train of thought. How do you say this in your language?
❤️❤️
Thank you!
In Czech a train of thought would be loosely translated as ‘myšlenkový pochod’ which literally means ‘flow of ideas or thinking process’ e.g. ’Jeho otázka zcela přerušila můj myšlenkový pochod.’ (His question completely interrupted my train of thought.)
To add some more to Richard´s, in Czech we also have “ztratit nit (hovoru)” (a possible English equivalent is “lose the thread of conversation”), “navázat nit” (“pick up the thread”//”pick up where sb left off” (more general). Personally, I like “urovnat si myšlenky” (“marshal one´s thoughts” in formal English).
Thank you! I’m loving all these translations of this phrase!
Redeem
Thank you
A similiar expression to “lose our train of thought” may be the italian expression “Ho perso il filo! ” . The translation is “I lost the thread! (of thought)
Thank you! You’ve reminded me that in English too we sometimes talk about losing the thread with this meaning.
In Oakland, California we would say,” I can’t remember what I was thinking, but don’t shoot me”.
” perdre le fil de ses idées” en français
In Portuguese train of thought we should say ” fio de pensamento” to interrupt train of thought= quebrar o fio de pensamento
This is such a lovely, poetic phrase. Thank you!
In Hebrew, we say רצף המחשבה. which roughly translates to ‘continuity of thought’
Thank you!
In french , we say”le fil de mes idées”. lose the train of thought is said ” perdre le fil de mes idées”
It’s so poetic in French! Thank you!
„Jetzt habe ich vergessen, was ich gerade sagen wollte.” Oder / or
„mir fehlen die Worte, die mir gerade auf der Zunge lagen …“
Hi Marion, I think in German it’s “der Gedankengang”, a journey through an idea.
Thank you for these. If we can’t quite remember a word or phrase but think we will in just a moment, we also say that it’s on the tip of our tongue.
The phrase “I lost my train of thought” could be translated to Brazilian Portuguese as “perdi o fio da meada”, literally meaning “I lost the thread” (of thought). This is similar to the French and Italian translations mentioned by other people on this page. However, “perdi o fio da meada” sounds quite outdated in Brazil.
Good morning. In my mother tongue, Uzbek, we say the phrase ” train of thought” “fikrlar oqimi”. In Russian, it is translated into “ход мыслей”.
In German we say
“Vom Hundertsten zum Tausendstel”
or/oder
“den Faden verlieren”
In Polish, we say “The tape got stuck.”
In German, it’s “der Gedankengang”; a journey through an idea.
Thank you for the article! In Romanian it’s “to lose your row of thoughts” (a pierde șirul gândurilor).
can you write something about tattling next time?
In Portuguese, you’d call it your “thread of thought” (fio de pensamento).
Very useful, wonderful British English!
In Spanish (as in other Latin languages: French, Italian, Portuguese…) we say “He perdido el hilo” o “Me he perdido”, but the latter is more often used when we can’t follow the train of thought in someone’s explanation.
In Turkish, neither do I remember the exact synonyms of ‘losing one’s train of thoughts’, nor I can make sure that there is an exact synonym I have heard of so far. However, I remember this: ‘düşünce zinciri’, as we talk about one’s train of thoughts. Therefore, it could preferably be translated into ‘düşünce zincirimi kaybettim,’ the same meaning as ‘I lost my train of thoughts.’