Creer and Pensar

Para mí, creo que es llenar formularios. For me, I think it's filling out forms - creer=think ¿Puedes creer lo que me pasó? Can you believe what happened to me? - creer= believe Pensé que sabía la vía de memoria. I thought I knew the way from memory - Pensar=to think I always thought to think is pensar and to believe is creer. Can we discuss this please?

Hola Aurora, Creer means to believe but it also means to think and pensar is think in the sense of thinking about something. Here are some examples from "The Big Redbook of Spanish Verbs" : ¿ Crees que el almacén está abierto? Do you think the department store is open? Creo que sí. I think so. Which in English could also be said, I believe so. Creen en Dios. They believe in God. Él piensa mucho. He thinks a lot. Creer would not work for that. Pensaba que habían llegado. I thought they had arrived. Creía could be used in place of pensaba and convey the same meaning. ¿En que piensas? What are you thinking about? Creer would not work there. I hope this helps. Saludos, Ricardo

Thanks, gracias

De nada.

While talking with at least a couple of native speakers, I noticed them beginning sentences with, "creo que..." then going on to state whatever it is that they think or believe. So in my mind, creer is associated with believing something, while pensar is associated with thinking (about) something. It seems a little like the differences between mirar and ver, or escuchar and oír. Mirando es creyendo...