What does 察するに and 証拠に mean?

Question

At the start of sentences I found these words 察するに and 証拠に

察するに私の読者や担当編集が必死になって書け書け言ってくれるあれのことだろう？

I thought that it was related to this, since I think that it can replace に with と、

証拠に、私は君が初めて書いた作品を知っているぞ

But I am not so sure about this one.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '21 at 00:41

This 察するに means "Judging from the situation" or "If I guess". This 証拠に means "As an evidence". These に's are grammatically different.

The first に is a literary conjunctive particle which roughly works like と, but with only a small set of verbs. It directly takes the dictionary form of a verb:

The second に is a case particle used as a role/function marker. It takes a noun (including a verb nominalized with の):

What does 察するに and 証拠に mean?

1 Answers1