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Uses of "I guess" for assumptions (?)

MikasaMinerva
Hi everyone, I'm familiar with "I guess..." marking hypotheses, impressions, opinions, and such. How do you feel about someone using "I guess" to lead into a supposition/guess about something that has a clear correct true answer or real state? (e.g. "I guess Paris is the capital of France." "I guess I rolled a five with my die.") Does this feel normal, unusual or weird to you? Looking forward to your opinion!

6 comments

Chemically_Deduced•
In my experience some people use "I guess" almost as in place of someone saying "um" or "er". It might mean they are hesitant, unsure, or some people have it rooted deep in their vocabulary to where it doesn't mean much of anything, just filler words that they say on impulse. Hope this helps and sorry if I didn't explain this very well, I'm not the best at it 😅
wbenjamin13•
The issue with the way this is worded is that certain contexts could make these sentences fine even if on their own they sound odd. Like “I guess Paris is the capital of France.” would be a reasonable and grammatical response to learning that you had previously given an incorrect answer to a question about what the capital of France is. So the actual specific context is really important when determining if a sentence is “wrong.”
iamcarlgauss•
There's definitely precedent for using it this way. I have a dialogue where it's used exactly like this on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember what it's from. It sounds sort of old-timey, like in a 1920s gangster sort of way. EDIT: I'm 99% it's from the TV show Community.
Bunnytob•
It doesn't feel weird at all. It has an answer, and it's an answer you're guessing at. I would, however, be more inclined to use "I'm guessing" than "I guess" in your given examples.
DrSomniferum•
Maybe for the Paris one, not for the di one: You may not know offhand the capital of France, but you can see what number is on your di.
Physical_Floor_8006•
It would usually start "I would guess that..." or "My guess would be that..."