idiom · neutral
put two and two together
UK/pʊt ˌtuː ənd ˌtuː təˈɡeðə/US/pʊt ˌtuː ənd ˌtuː təˈɡɛðər/put·TWO·and·TWO·to·GET·her
to deduce or figure something out from the facts or clues available
Examples
“When I saw his wet shoes and the opened door, I put two and two together and realised he'd been here.”
“You don't need me to tell you — put two and two together.”
“She put two and two together from the emails and guessed what happened.”
Band 8 sentence
“After reading the timeline and the emails I put two and two together and realised there had been a cover-up.”
Collocations
- put two and two together from
- quickly/clearly put two and two together
Word family
Common mistakes
put two and two together to understand→put two and two together
add two and two→put two and two together (meaning deduce)
Say it for a higher band
5guess→6infer→7+put two and two together
Synonyms
infer
Easily confused
draw a conclusion
“From these statistics we can draw a conclusion about changing demographics.”
Related words
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In Communication
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