Why Can't You Just Say "I Think You" in English?

Hey guys. It’s been a hot minute since I posted on the tips board. FYI, I just touched up an old Brunch post, so I’m using super casual language, apologies for the lack of honorifics. If this is a problem, I’ll take it down.

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The phrase "I think you" doesn't work in English. You absolutely have to say "I think of/about you." This is because the verb 'think' doesn't directly target the 'person' itself, but rather targets the 'content or concept' associated with that person. The verb 'think' basically means recalling thoughts in your head, which isn't a "physical action" like manipulating or moving a tangible object, but rather a "non-material information processing act" generated in the brain. Because it handles 'content' like conceptual objects, memories, emotions, and judgments, the object must also be a "conceptualized object." That's why, even when taking a noun object, English combines it with `of/about` (concerning~) to explicitly signify "the content about that subject," not "the subject itself."

Analyzing this further, verbs fall into categories: expressing physical actions (e.g., grab, push, move), expressing states (e.g., be, hurt), and a third category: 'things that function like actions executed in the brain even though they have no physical form.' This third category includes cognitive verbs like think, remember, imagine, and doubt. These verbs tend to take their objects in the form of "the content of thoughts/memories/emotions related to that person," rather than directly taking the name of a person or object as the direct object.

In that case, the role of the prepositions 'of' or 'about' can be seen as a device that conceptually converts a noun referring to a physical object, reprocessing it into the information "concerning that thing." Therefore, in traditional English grammar education, Type 3 verbs (like think) and Type 4 verbs (like convince) take either a noun clause or a noun combined with of/about as the direct object.

* Noun clause (I think (that) he’s right.) * Noun + of/about (I think about you.)

On the flip side, the sentence "나 네 생각하고 있었어" (I was thinking your thought/I was thinking you) is used naturally in Korean. While literally it seems to have the same structure as "I think you," Korean speakers treat the noun "you" as a 'tag referring to a person/thing' and then automatically process the abstraction ("thoughts about you") inside their heads. This shows that Korean has the linguistic characteristic of adjusting meaning based on context.

Here’s an interesting example: Japanese, which is often considered most similar to Korean, actually handles this differently. When expressing the same concept in Japanese, it is as follows:

* × 私はいつもあなたを考える。(Literal translation: "I always think you." – awkward in Japanese) * ○ 私はいつもあなたのことを考える。(Literal translation: “I always think of your thing/matter” – natural in Japanese)

What's noteworthy here is that it's natural for Japanese speakers to express the object of thought not directly as "the person itself," but in a conceptualized form like "the matter concerning that person" (あなたのこと). Just as English uses of/about for conceptual conversion, Japanese uses the expression "〜のこと" to treat the object of emotion/thought as abstracted 'content.' In short, Japanese has a structure that explicitly 'conceptualizes' the object of emotion or thought linguistically. Korean tends to handle this process automatically inside the speaker's head, while Japanese and English reflect this conceptualization in their linguistic form.

These linguistic differences depend not only on historical and cultural backgrounds but also on whether a specific language "leaves information to context" or "marks it explicitly in form." In Korean, it’s natural to use abstraction and collective expressions, like using nouns without heavily distinguishing between singular/plural, or using "우리집" (our house) to mean "my house" (singular possession). English, conversely, reflects count/noncount distinctions and possession/object relations quite clearly in its structure.

Ultimately, instead of just rote memorizing the grammar rule "Never use I think you," if we look at language by understanding that the concept of noun usage differs based on the language, we might be able to accept language as if it were an engineering design choice.