Definition

1. Verb:
   • To estimate roughly / to make an educated guess: To form an approximate judgment or conclusion based on available information, intuition, or probability, without certainty.
   • To surmise / to conjecture: To infer or suppose something to be the case without firm evidence.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Tôi chỉ có thể đoán chừng là họ sẽ đến vào khoảng 3 giờ. (I can only estimate that they will arrive around 3 o'clock.)
  • Anh ấy đoán chừng kết quả cuộc thi thông qua biểu hiện của giám khảo. (He surmised the contest result through the judges' expressions.)
  • Cũng đoán chừng thế thôi, chưa chắc đã đúng. (It's just a rough guess like that, it might not be correct.)

Advanced Usage

• Used to express a tentative conclusion, often highlighting the speaker's lack of complete confidence or definitive proof. It implies a reasoning process that fills in gaps with plausible assumptions.

Variants and Related Words

• Đoán (v): to guess, to predict.

  • Cậu bé đoán đúng số kẹo trong lọ. (The boy guessed the correct number of candies in the jar.)

• Phỏng đoán (v): to conjecture, to hypothesize (often slightly more formal than "đoán chừng").

  • Cảnh sát đang phỏng đoán động cơ của tên tội phạm. (The police are conjecturing the criminal's motive.)

• Ước chừng (v): to approximate, to estimate (often focused on numerical or quantitative approximation).

  • Chúng tôi ước chừng chi phí khoảng 10 triệu đồng. (We approximate the cost at about 10 million VND.)

Synonyms

• Estimate: To roughly calculate or judge the value, number, or extent of something.
• Surmise: To suppose something is true without having evidence to confirm it.
• Conjecture: To form an opinion or conclusion on the basis of incomplete information.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Đoán già đoán non: To make all sorts of guesses; to speculate endlessly.

  • Mọi người đoán già đoán non về tương lai của công ty. (People made all sorts of guesses about the company's future.)

• Đoán mò: To make a wild guess.

  • Đừng đoán mò, hãy tìm hiểu sự thật. (Don't make a wild guess, find out the truth.)

1. Infer (fro what is known)
   • Cũng đoán chừng thế thôi, chưa chắc đã đúng
     To infer a conclusion just like that without any certainly of correctness
2. đoán định
3. Udge and decide
   • Giữ toàn quyền đoán định
     To hold a full right to udge ad decide