# "Put two and two together."



## tagalogstudent

I can't think of a way to explain that idiom, "put two and two together," even though I use it, almost on a daily basis, because I just _know_ what it means.

But, my fiance in the Philippines does _not_ know what it means.

Can someone give me either a Tagalog equivalent to that idiom, or a Tagalog paragraph that can describe it?


----------



## DotterKat

This idiom implies that the person already possesses disparate pieces of information but is yet unable to put them together to make a coherent picture of whatever situation is being discussed.  There is neither a direct translation nor a Tagalog equivalent that would be quite right, but you don't really need a paragraph to explain it.  In the end, it will all be very contextual.  Let's say that at the end of a back and forth discussion in which you are trying to lead the collocutor to the obvious conclusion, based on information that he or she already has, you might say:

"Alam mo na ang lahat.  Isipin mo lang ng mabuti at darating din sa iyo ang tamang kasagutan."

_You already know everything.  Just think about it carefully and the right answer will come to you._


----------



## niernier

Maybe we can have this translated to "pagdugtong-dugtong ng nalalaman" but this I believe doesn't have the final meaning of the idiom which is the drawing of proper inference from existing knowledge. Siempre, of course we have a way saying things across to the listener. I choose to say:

"Pag pinagdugtong-dugtong mo lahat ng alam mo, magegets mo din yan."

  If you put together all that you know, you will eventually get what it means.

pagdugtong-dugtong means putting pieces together


----------

