Dar por hecho

to take for granted; **to take for granted**; **to assume**; **to take as certain**; **to regard as a fact**

Dar por hecho means to assume that something is true, certain or guaranteed, even if it has not yet been formally confirmed.

The speaker treats the information as if it were already established.

Journalists may dar por hecho that a minister will resign before the official announcement.

An employee may dar por hecho that a meeting has been cancelled.

Friends may dar por hecho that someone will attend a party.

The expression often implies a degree of confidence, although that confidence may later prove to be mistaken.

• assume something is true
• treat information as confirmed
• expect something to happen
• believe an outcome is certain
• speak about something that has not yet become official

The expression developed from the broad Spanish use of the verb dar in fixed constructions.

Here, the idea is that something is mentally "accepted as already accomplished."

Over time, the phrase became completely idiomatic.

Modern speakers rarely analyse the individual words and simply understand the expression as meaning "to assume" or "to consider certain."

Spanish speakers often use dar por hecho when discussing rumours, expectations or likely future events.

Because of this, the expression appears constantly in news reports and political analysis.

Its frequent use reflects the natural tendency to distinguish between what has been officially confirmed and what people already consider practically certain.

The verb dar appears in an extraordinary number of Spanish idiomatic expressions.

Among them are:

• dar igual
• dar la talla
• dar en el clavo
• dar el brazo a torcer
• dar por hecho

Learning these fixed combinations is one of the fastest ways to sound natural in Spanish, because native speakers use them constantly in everyday conversation.

Avoid translating the expression word for word.

English speakers do not normally say:

to give something as done.

Instead, choose to assume, to take as certain, or, in some contexts, to take for granted.

Notice that dar por hecho usually refers to accepting information as true before complete confirmation is available.