What is the difference between 感觉 and 觉得? Do the differences matter? How to use 感觉 and 觉得 in a sentence?

Well, we will show you all of that in this post. You will learn not only the differences but also the usage of 感觉 and 觉得.

The difference between 感觉 / 感覺 and 觉得 / 覺得

• Similarity: Both of them are verbs. You can use them to express your thoughts and your feelings. They are like “feel” or “think” in English.
• Difference:

· 感觉 / 感覺 is a verb and a noun

· 觉得 / 覺得 can only be in the verb form

1. 感觉 / 感覺 (n) (v) (gǎn jué)

a. As a noun

明天要出国了，你有什么【感觉】呢？

明天要出國了，你有什麼【感覺】呢？

Míng tiān yào chū guó le, nǐ yǒu shén me gǎn jué ne?

We are going abroad tomorrow, how are you feeling?

我的【感觉】他永远不会懂。

我的【感覺】他永遠不會懂。

wǒ de gǎn jué tā bú hùi dǒng.

He will never get my feelings.

In those two examples, we can’t replace 感觉 / 感覺 with 觉得 / 覺得.

b. As a verb

我【感觉】她不太开心。

我【感覺】她不太開心。

wǒ gǎn jué tā bú tài kāi xīn.

I feel like she is not very happy.

In this case, we can say 感觉 / 感覺 instead of 觉得 / 覺得, and the meaning would be still the same.

—> 我【觉得】她不太开心。

我【覺得】她不太開心。

If you want to emphasize that you can sense how she is feeling, you can add【可以】and【到】–> 我  可以 感觉 到  她不太开心。

But we can’t say【可以觉得到】. Only【可以感觉到】is correct.

2. 觉得 / 覺得 (v) (jué de)

我觉得打棒球好难！

我覺得打棒球好難！

wǒ jué de dǎ bàng qiú hǎo nán!

Playing baseball is very hard!

In this example, we can replace 觉得 / 覺得 with 感觉 / 感覺, and it would still be grammatically correct.

However, depending on which word you’re using, the meaning of the sentences will be slightly different. We will explain it right below.

3. Is there any differences between 感觉 and 觉得 as verbs?

In most cases, you can use these two verbs (觉得 and 感觉) interchangeably.

However, in some situations, choosing between 觉得 and 感觉 will change the meaning of your sentences.

And here are the differences when you say 我【觉得】打棒球好难！ v/s  我【感觉】打棒球好难！

• 觉得

1. You might have or have not played baseball before.
2. What you mean is “Playing baseball is hard!”.
3. You have that “Playing baseball is hard!” comment from your experience, observation, or feelings.

• 感觉

1. Likely, you have never played baseball before.
2. What you want to say is “I guess/feel like/think playing baseball is very hard!”.
3. What you say is based on your feelings and observations, not your playing baseball experience.

Here is one more example:

乐乐: This restaurant looks pretty nice.

Have you ever eaten at this place before?

You: Yes, it was ok.

乐乐 has never been to that restaurant before. She uses 感觉 to say what she thinks based on the restaurant’s appearance. In other words, she is guessing.

You have eaten at that restaurant, use 覺得 to give a review on the experience.

Memo:

Use 觉得 to express your thoughts and feelings about something or someone (based on your experiences).

Use 感觉 when you are not 100% sure what you are saying (your guess).

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about 感觉 / 感覺 and 觉得 / 覺得~