Ça te dit ? What do you think?

3.3 Going into town or Aller en Ville

In the conversation between Paul and Claire when Paul said, Ça te dit ? and the English translation was "What do you think?" Being a beginner I would have used what do you say (dit)  instead of think. 

If I am speaking English between friends in the same context I would have said, "What do you think?" instead of "What do you say"

Ah, that's because translation for "Ça te dit ?" is more like "Does it speak to you?" (note that "ça" (that/it) is the subject here, and "te" (you) is the object). That's why the gist of it is "What do you think?" or "How does that sound?"

OK, literally it can still be a correct interpretation of "What do you say?" if we go to this movie instead of that movie but French speakers will automatically think in their head "What do you think".  It falls into the idiosyncrasy of languages: from the literal "speak" to "sound" to "think". I have a long way to become a French speaker. 

I knew I had arrived when I dreamed in my 2nd language. 

Think you may be confusing the "te" with "tu" - "ca te dit" is not "what do you say", it's "that speaks TO you?" (te is the object of dire, not the subject). Maybe I'm  misunderstanding your challenge ... :)

Nicholas-R18,

I'm not confusing te and tu; just hung up on the word dit or being too literal. I couldn't get pass the fact that dit is say or tell or speak as you suggested. But from dit (say, tell, and speak) to the translation of "What do you think" or "How does it sound" is quite a stretch to me. Would "Ça te pense ?" be not "thinking in French" but translating word for word from English? 

I think "Qu'est-ce que tu pense?" would be translating word-for-word from "What do you think?".

"How's that sound to you?" is "ca te dit?". Agreed, there is a thinking-in-French leap there :) The closest in English might be "Does that speak to you?", although it has a slightly different nuance and contextual usage.

"Ca te pense?" would be something like "how does that think of you?", although I can't think of a (non-metaphysical) context in which that would used ...

More specifically, Qu'est-ce que tu penses ? is asking "What are you thinking?", so there's no reference to anything being presented/offered.

If you want to use penser, you need to use the locution penser de quelque chose (to think of something). Because of this, you will need to use the pronoun, en as your "referencing" pronoun (à=>y, de=>en):

Qu'est-ce que tu en penses ? = What do you think of/about it?

torusan,

1st paragraph easily understood. 

2nd paragreaph: you open a can of worms more than I can swallow. I don't think I have master the "referencing" pronoun (à=>y, de=>en) yet. 

On my own I am ashamed to say that I couldn't have written that yet but when you wrote it out then it was clear as day. :(