anvil2002

[lethal lagoon]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[fleet flicker]

you can't look at it on it's own, you need to have that comes before the 'que' for that structure to work

you're dealing with something called the subjunctive

and the verb penser, when used in the negative, and followed by another clause, requires that clause to be in the subjunctive mood

in the case of "que ça ait" it's just the present subjunctive of the verb avoir

[echo compass]

that's the full context

• est-ce que tu pense qu'il y a des extraterrestres sur terre ou dans le système solaire?
• je ne pense pas qu'il y en ait sur terre même si il y a eu des bombardements de météorite sur terre qui aurait pu apporter des choses. Mais je ne pense pas que ça ait apporté de la vie

and do I get it right that when I say "I think there are a lot of books in my room" I need to use "il y a" in the subjunctive mood? how is it gonna sound In this case?

[frigid palm]

« penser » only takes the subjunctive in a negative form or an inverted question, so no.

[echo compass]

"je ne crois pas qu'il y ait un mot pour le décrire" like that right? it applies to any negative sentence with "there's is"?

[frigid palm]

Yes and no, the subjunctive appears in the negative/inverted-question for penser, espérer, and croire, but they’re not the only places where it appears. Read this article for more.

Ex: « Je ne vois pas qu’il y avait des problèmes avec la machine. (I don’t see that there were issues with the machine) »

[echo compass]

but "Je ne vois pas qu'il y ait des problèmes avec la machine"?

[frigid palm]

No, the subjunctive never appears with voir.

[echo compass]

got it. That's just what the google translate showed me

idk why

[frigid palm]

Yeah Google Translate isn’t the best – machine translation generally isn’t the best way to learn a language – DeepL is better

In fact if you put that sentence into DeepL, it’ll switch « voir » with « penser » and the subjunctive will appear:
« Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait eu des problèmes avec la machine. »

[echo compass]

But that sentence was in the present. And the one you sent is in the past

[frigid palm]

Both sentences are present in the first bit (the main clause) and past in the second bit (the subordinate clause)

And to your previous question, no, penser and croire are not interchangeable with the latter being a lot firmer than the former

[echo compass]

didn't quite get it.

• Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait de problèmes avec ma voiture. (i don't think there are problems with my car)
  and yours
• Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait eu des problèmes avec la machine (I don't think there were any problems with the machine.)

[frigid palm]

Yeah I just put it in the past because it seemed to make the most sense but sure we can rephrase that:
« Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait un problème »
« Je ne vois pas qu’il y a un problème »

[echo compass]

thanks, now it's clear :0

[echo compass]

and regarding that. Is it right that "je pense" implies assumption whereas "je crois" signifies that I'm sure what I'm talking about?

[frigid palm]

penser implies a line of thinking, a logical path, whereas croire implies a belief

What you said could apply but I don’t know if that’s a meaningful difference