What is the difference between guess and think

The presence of either word doesn't indicate a level of certainty this is given by context, including the tone in which it is spoken. A: I need to go home soon.

It's 11 PM now, when does the last train leave? B: I think it's at 10 PM. Let me check. Yeah, 10 PM. I guess you have to call a cab. B uses "I think" because he's recalling information he had before, and uses "I guess" when he's doing an on-the-spot appraisal of the current situation.

In my experience, North American usage is closer how you describe South Asian usage. I think is much more affirmative than I guess.

More than the difference in affirmativeness, though, is the intent. I think X connotes that the speaker has given X conscious thought and consideration, and according to their best judgment, calculation, or recollection, X is true. I guess is often used in phrases like I guess so or simply I guess , in response to an inquiry. When used this way, it means the speaker doesn't care much or hasn't really given it much thought, but doesn't have any strong reason to disagree. So, I think stocks are a better investment than bonds indicates that the speaker honestly believes stocks are better than bonds.

He may not be sure, but he has analyzed them and he would bet on stocks. I guess stocks are a better investment than bonds indicates that the speaker has either already observed that stocks are better than bonds so he is quite certain that they are in fact better, but he didn't have to really think about it or that he has been told that stocks are better, and that is good enough for him.

Finally, phrases like I would guess X or my guess is that X indicate conjecture. The speaker is saying "well, I don't really have sufficient information, but if I have to make a guess, my guess is X".

I have leapt to this conclusion, but haven't really thought about it, before this moment. This is often used in guarded responses, that a person feels they might have to retract in future. Based on some past experience, I am making a choice without much consideration to the matter. However, if I'm shown to be wrong, I will not be terribly surprised.

If I reckon something to be one way, and I'm wrong, it's a point against my intelligence or observational skills; if I guess or suppose something, and am wrong, there is no point against my pride. Often used to mean the same as reckon , but implies slightly more calculation at work.

I believe that my statement can be taken as factual. Having considered this briefly, this is my decision.

I have made a judgement of fact in this matter, and am unlikely to change it without new information becoming available. Bring your English to the advanced level with new vocabulary and natural expressions. Click here to download them instantly.

Today we have given you a bunch of new expressions that you can try using immediately. View Full Bio. October 5, Your browser does not support the audio element. Learn to speak naturally with the American accent. We have heard it being used a few times by Australians. We should go this weekend! I guess we should take the train.

She always calls me on Tuesdays! I remember going there when I was younger. Both teams made some wild guesses , none of which were right. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess.

That was an inspired guess. This is only a rough guess. That's my best guess but I could well be wrong. Guesses and assumptions. You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics: Confusion, confusing and feeling confused.

Idiom your guess is as good as mine. To guess can also mean to give the correct answer :. To guess also means to think or believe :. Go on, take a guess. Idioms your guess is as good as mine. Examples of guess. Secondly, most optimization problems depend on the initial guesses, and identification of the global minimum is not guaranteed. From the Cambridge English Corpus.

The listeners accurately guessed the self-identified sexuality of the speakers On a vir tual servo-mechanism for guessing bad news. The informant responds that he guesses his father was, that he thinks he was remarried then. He saw that implicit contracts had something to say about that and guessed that the two of us might make interesting colleagues. Differential neural response to positive and negative feedback in planning and guessing tasks.

I sat through rehearsal after rehearsal trying to think ahead of her and guessing what the next instruction would be. Users do not just make guesses based on frequency of word combinations. From guessing what teachers think to finding out what teachers know. However, guessing is not so simple for large programs where higher-order functions such as map are called repeatedly with different higher-order arguments each time.

Post-hoc tests showed that the six- to seven-year-olds guessed fewer correct phonemes than all other groups. In short, guessing from context has serious limitations. Patterns and perils of guessing in second language reading. Effects of prior guessing on intentional and incidental paired-associate learning. Her research reveals that the students' guesses from academic texts are enhanced by the context provided by the course.

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