We talked mainly about the verb immaginare in part 1 of this lesson, and now we'll focus on supporre. 

In our first example, supporre is easily interchangeable with immaginare, both in Italian and in English.

Buongiorno a Lei, signora Baudino. Cercava me, suppongo. Prego. -Grazie, sì.

Good morning to you, Missus Baudino. You were looking for me, I suppose. Please come in. -Yes, thank you.

Captions 5-7, Provaci ancora prof! S2E6 La strana ossessione - Part 5

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In the next example, on the other hand, supporre is a bit more nuanced and we have translated it with "to assume." We're not really imagining here, we are making an assumption based on evidence, or reasoning. However, the speaker could easily have used immaginare if he had been trying to conjure up the past. The important thing to keep in mind is that "to assume" is one way to translate supporre." Another Italian verb could work here, too: ipotizzare (to hypothesize). It's used quite frequently in ordinary conversation. 

Per questo motivo, possiamo supporre che proprio in questo momento, i conservatori abbiano chiamato il loro miglior pittore ad eseguire sulla parete dell'Arengario, eh, quella Resurrezione che diverrà il simbolo identitario della città.

For this reason, we can assume that right at this moment, the conservators had called their finest painter to execute, on the wall of the Arengario, uh, that Resurrection which will become the iconic symbol of the city.

Captions 49-53, La pittura più bella del mondo La Resurrezione di Piero della Francesca - Part 13

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In this next example, supporre doesn't seem to be interchangeable with immaginare, because we're talking about a supposition based on something concrete.

Questo perché la testimonianza della tua amica Camilla, ti fa supporre che la signora Predolin sia una vittima innocente.

This is because the account of your friend Camilla causes  you to assume that Missus Predolin is an innocent victim.

Captions 105-106, Provaci ancora prof! S2E5 Vita da cani - Part 13

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We translated it with "to assume," but it could also be "to presume," another possible translation of immaginare.

In English, we can use the imperative of "to suppose" as in: "Suppose I were to ask you on a date. Would you say yes?" In Italian, we'd likely use the first person plural: Supponiamo (let's suppose).

Adesso supponiamo che stai passeggiando per strada e un passante ti chiede: "Mi scusi, mi potrebbe dire, per favore, che ore sono?".

Now, let's suppose you're walking down the street and a passerby asks you: "Excuse me, could you please tell me what time it is?"

Captions 28-30, Marika spiega 18 Modi di dire Sì senza dire Sì

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We hope that you have a greater understanding of the verbs immaginare and supporre and when (and how) they are used.

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