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Let's say John is in the jungle at night without a clock. He stops to think of all the things he did since he last knew the time and comes to the conclusion that it's approximately 3:00 o' clock a.m.
Are the following phrases correct? (I could find almost no hits on google)
He estimated the time to be 3:00.
He reckoned the time at 3:00.
He guessed the time was 3:00.
If not, how would you write it correctly?
All three are correct: however, in everyday English, to indicate that there is some uncertainty about the exact time, we would normally place 'about' before the time. e.g.
He estimated the time to be about 3:00.
He reckoned the time at about 3:00.
He guessed the time was about 3:00.
In informal speech 'about' may be replaced with 'round about' or 'around about'. Adding the extra word before 'about' does not change the meaning in any way, and its use is not advised in formal speech.
Of the three sentences in your question, the least credible is:
He guessed the time was about 3:00.
"To guess" means to provide an answer or opinion about something when you do not have sufficient information on which to base your answer. You may guess right, but you are even more likely to guess wrong.
"To estimate" and "to reckon" both imply that the person has put some work into arriving at an answer, and that they have made use of whatever information was available to assist them. "To reckon" is probably the more credible term of the two as it implies that the available data was included in some form of computation or calculation in order to arrive at an answer.
Whilst the first and last are correct and do make sense, the middle one's use of "at" is incorrect.
He reckoned the time at 3:00
Since you are using the past tense in "reckoned" this means that "at" would become "was". To make it sound a bit more natural you could say
"He reckoned it was around 3:00 o'clock" Or "He reckoned the time was around 3:00"
Hope this helps :)
(Native American English speaker)
I would contradict the answers put forth by @James, which perhaps take on a slightly more British English response, and suggest that the phrase:
He guessed the time was about 3:00
is the most natural in the context of spoken (American) English and that the addition of the word "about" does, in fact, change the implied meaning. Whereas to guess, reckon, or estimate indicates how the person reached their current beliefs, the addition of "about" indicates the degree of confidence its precision or accuracy. Omitting it would imply that, although guessed, John is very confident in the precision othe value.
Among the three verbs, American English would most likely use "guessed" in a narrative or spoken setting and "estimated" in a more technical context. The verb "reckon" is rarely used and can be considered semi-archaic or a (Southern American English) colloquialism.
