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In an exercise I came across the following sentence:

Mis colegas dan por supuesto que yo termino el trabajo.

I wonder about the expression dan por supuesto. I learned that dar is most frequently used as to give but I know that it may have different senses.

I would guess it just means assume and thus could be replaced with suponen:

Mis colegas suponen que yo termino el trabajo.

Is that true? If yes, is the former sentence just a somewhat more formal way. What could be a proper translation? My guess would be to proceed from the assumption.
If no, what does this expression mean?

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The phrase «dar por supuesto» roughly translates as “to take as granted”. Note that English “take out” or “take away” might have a similar meaning as «dar», and yes «dar por supuesto» and «suponer» have a very similar meaning, with the subtle meaning shift you already guessed.

Other similar constructions with «dar»:

dar por hecho (assume it is a fact)

dar por sentado (agree or assume an agreement was done)

dar por muerto (believe somebody is dead, left behind somebody assuming he/she is dead)

dar por perdido (stop searching something, assume it is lost)

You probably get the common theme.

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  • According to meanings 7 and 8 of dar in RAE, dar can mean "Convenir en una proposición" (agree in a proposition) or "Suponer, declarar, considerar". I think those meanings fit in this case.
    – MikMik
    Nov 15, 2013 at 7:25
  • Does "dar" here still have the literal meaning of "to give", i.e. do you say "to give something for granted" or "to give as a fact" or "to give someone as dead", or would you say that this sense of "dar" has nothing to do with the idea of "to give". I wonder because bilingual dictionaries put out a lot of translations for "dar" which do have nothing in common. I'm used to the fact that you mostly can derive from one meaning to another one, sometimes with a subtle shift, sometimes you need to take a great leap; but here it rather seems to be the opposite: to give - to take.
    – Em1
    Nov 15, 2013 at 8:34
  • En mi experiencia he usado mucho las frases de ejemplo que tu utilizas, pero nunca dan por supuesto aunque la entiendo igual, lo que me suena rara Nov 17, 2013 at 23:29
  • 'Dar por supuesto' is standard in Spain.
    – Envite
    Nov 25, 2013 at 9:42

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