I arrived at a conclusion that he was not telling the truth.
and
I assumed he was not telling the truth.
Do arrive at and assume mean the same?
and
I assumed he was not telling the truth.
Do arrive at and assume mean the same?
are they the same?
- Thread starter catian
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I would say no.
"Assume" means "to take as granted or true; suppose." You can assume something without giving it any real thought.
"Arrive at" means "to reach by effort or thought." It implies that you've at least given the matter some consideration.
(definitions from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition).
"Assume" means "to take as granted or true; suppose." You can assume something without giving it any real thought.
"Arrive at" means "to reach by effort or thought." It implies that you've at least given the matter some consideration.
(definitions from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition).
I agree with the above. They are not the same, and there are better ways to express it. If you have a character showing itself through language, then select the one that best fits the character.
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I just wanted to say that I think this was a very good question to ask here. Thank you for posing it, catian.
I definitely go with this answer even though the end result is the same. The narrator now thinks that someone is lying.
Because I chose those two words first.
I guess it is a style of writing.
All words are to be used I guess.
Not always, obviously. This is why a dictionary is sometimes better than a a thesaurus:
I arrived at Toranto after I had assumed the guise of a traveler.
For the purpose of the original text, I would say they approximate the same meaning well enough to be equivalent. I would NOT assume that they were necessarily equivalent in any other context.
~~On second thought: the constructions may mean approximately the same, but arrive and assume cannot be switched in your OP example: I arrived he was lying. I assumed the conclusion he was lying. So, no, arrive and assume do not mean the same.
I arrived at Toranto after I had assumed the guise of a traveler.
For the purpose of the original text, I would say they approximate the same meaning well enough to be equivalent. I would NOT assume that they were necessarily equivalent in any other context.
~~On second thought: the constructions may mean approximately the same, but arrive and assume cannot be switched in your OP example: I arrived he was lying. I assumed the conclusion he was lying. So, no, arrive and assume do not mean the same.
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I agree that "arrive at" suggests you've considered the matter for a time. For instance, your describing a character's thought process regarding a matter, and that process has twists and turns, so to speak, like a car traveling and eventually *arriving* at some location--your character *arrives* at a conclusion.