guess

If you aren’t sure about an answer to a question, or if you don’t have needed information, you can "guess."

In these examples, "guess" is used as a verb:

• Taylor didn’t know the answers to the questions on the test, so she guessed.
• The doctor is guessing that her patient’s stomach pain is being caused by stress.
• The teacher told us it was okay to guess on the test.
• Can you guess my age? ,

This is what "guess" looks like as a noun:

• How much does that weigh? What’s your guess?
• This is just a guess, but I believe that Gloria is pregnant.
• There’s a lot of guessing going on about Kevin. Is he going to lose his job? (The word "guessing" in this sentence is a gerund.)
• Tom thought the strange noises in his house were coming from the attic. That turned out to be a very good guess because he found a family of squirrels up there.

In conversation, many people say "I guess." Sometimes it means that you aren’t sure, sometimes it means you don’t care, but in other instances it’s an expression without much meaning:

• Okay, I guess. You can stay here this weekend.
• I guess it’s going to rain today.
• Our supervisor asked for our opinions, but I guess it doesn’t matter because he does what he wants to do anyway.

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Published on March 23, 2012