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What does the expression

"Ich gehe davon aus"

mean?

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3 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

"von etwas ausgehen" = "etwas voraussetzen"

English translations: "assume", "premise", "presume"

A German example:

Ich gehe davon aus, dass Sie diesen Artikel gelesen haben.

Same meaning:

Ich setze voraus, dass Sie diesen Artikel gelesen haben.

English translation:

I assume/premise that you did read this article.

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up vote 4 down vote

"Pusten Sie hier nicht so herum", sagte die Kerze zu dem Kellner, "ich gehe davon aus!". "Ich gehe davon aus" erwiderte der kaltherzige Kellner...

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+1 Good catch :) – Em1 Sep 27 '12 at 11:56
1  
+1 for answering the question without answering the question yet answering some unasked questions at the same time, answering the real question indirectly. – TheBlastOne Oct 1 '12 at 11:20
up vote 6 down vote

You could translate it as:

I'm assuming that...

Here is the dict.cc translation page and here the leo.org page of:

davon ausgehen

So it's basically an assumption one thinks is true or it's not really knowing, but you figure.

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