Pensare che vs Pensare di?

Question

I have doubts about when to use "pensare che" or "pensare di", this is in my opinion, specially difficult for Spanish speakers who would always use "pensar que" which is similar to "pensare che".I have seen sentences like > - "Pensano che sia meglio vivere a Londra"> - "Pensano di poter vivere meglio a Londra"Are these interchangeable? Are they used with certain verbs?

Answer 1

If we have two sentences with two different subjects :

IO (I) penso CHE ESSO (IT impersonal) sia meglio ..., than is CHE

if we have the same two sentences with the same subject:

IO (I) penso DI (IO ) andare...than is DI

Answer 2

The verb "pensare" means "to think", but like in English, there is a "think that" and a "think about" like in "I think that xxx is better" and "I am thinking about doing xxx". It's more or less the same in Italian. The sentence "Pensano che sia meglio vivere a Londra" means "They think that living in London would be better.", while "Pensano di poter vivere meglio a Londra" means "The are thinking about living a better life in London.". There is also "pensar a", which means "thinking of a person" like in "Sto pensando a te" (I keep thinking of you).