▎以為, yĭwéi, (Vst), to have wrongly thought that...

 

Function The verb 以為, especially when used in colloquial conversations, confesses to a mistaken assumption on the part of the speaker or the subject.

1 我以為那會是一場美食的饗宴，結果，菜沒什麼特色不說，材料還不新鮮，真是讓人失望。

Wǒ yǐwéi nà huì shì yì chǎng měishí de xiǎngyàn, jiéguǒ, cài méi shénme tèsè bùshuō, cáiliào hái bù xīnxiān, zhēnshi ràng rén shīwàng.

Here I thought it was going to be a lavish feast, but not only was the food unremarkable, it wasn’t even fresh. What a disappointment.

2 我原來以為你們不熟，沒想到他居然提到了你們小時候常一起玩的事。

Wǒ yuánlái yǐwéi nǐmen bù shóu, méi xiǎngdào tā jūrán tídàole nǐmen xiǎo shíhòu cháng yìqǐ wán de shì.

And here I thought you didn’t know each other very well, but then he mentioned that you often played together as kids.

3 我們本來以為他會遲到；沒想到他今天很準時。

Wǒmen běnlái yǐwéi tā huì chídào; méi xiǎngdào tā jīntiān hěn zhǔnshí.

We thought he'd be late for sure; we never dreamed that today he'd be right on time.

4 我們都以為這家知名餐廳的服務生一定都很有禮貌，沒想到也有這麼糟的。

Wǒmen dōu yǐwéi zhè jiā zhīmíng cāntīng de fúwùshēng yídìng dōu hěn yǒu lǐmào, méi xiǎngdào yě yǒu zhème zāo de.

We all expected that the servers at this well-known restaurant would be very courteous, in reality ours was far from it.

5 我們以為這些番茄都是基因改造的，現在才知道這些都是有機番茄。

Wǒmen yǐwéi zhèxiē fānqié dōu shì jīyīn gǎizào de, xiànzài cái zhīdào zhèxiē dōu shì yǒujī fānqié.

We had been under the impression that these were GMO tomatoes, but just found out that they are organic tomatoes.

 

Usage

(1) In formal speech, 以為 and 認為 are freely interchangeable.

(2) 以為 is often used together with 其實, which presents the truth, e.g.,

1 我以為他還單身，其實他已經結婚了。

Wǒ yǐwéi tā hái dānshēn, qíshí tā yǐjīng jiéhūn le.

I thought he was still single. He was actually already married.

2 他以為我還住在淡水，其實我早就搬到台中了。

Tā yǐwéi wǒ hái zhù zài Dànshuǐ, qíshí wǒ zǎo jiù bān dào Táizhōng le.

He thought that I still lived in Danshui. I actually moved to Taichung a long time ago.