In German, the word for the act of trying to find the right answer to a question by selecting the most plausible option is “raten”, for the act of doing so correctly “erraten”. In order to distinguish “raten” from its alternate meaning of “to counsel”, the accusative is used (rather than the dative). Other words for “to guess” are “vermuten” (“to assume”), “schätzen” (“to estimate”), “annehmen” (“to suppose”) and “ahnen” (“to suspect”):

– “Du hast es erraten!” – “You guessed it!”
– “Er hat mein Gewicht erraten.” – “He guessed my weight.”
– “Ich weiss es nicht. Ich muss raten.” – “I don’t know. I have to guess.”
– “Ich vermute, dass sie später kommen werden.” – “I assume they will come later.”
– “Ich schätze die Temperatur auf etwa 5 Grad.” – “I guess the temperature is about five degrees.”
– “Ich nehme an, dass es möglich ist.” – “I suppose it’s possible.”
– “Nichts ahnend ging er in das Haus.” – “Without suspecting anything he went into the house.”