I commonly see sentences constructed like:
"I can only imagine how much time she spent on [something]."
I can't grasp the meaning of " I can only imagine", however. In what contexts would this expression be used? Is it for emphasis, or for poetic style, or simply to seem fancy or posh?
Best Answer
As others have noted, context is quite important for phrases like this.
As a generalisation, however, "I can only imagine" usually indicates one of two things (which often overlap somewhat in practice).
That the speaker is talking about something unusual, extreme, shocking, or otherwise exceptional. The intended implication is "I have to use my imagination to visualise that, because I have never had a real experience that I can compare it to."
"I can only imagine what it must have been like inside that burning building."
"I can only imagine what winning a Nobel Prize feels like"
That the speaker has no way of knowing something (and therefore has to use their imagination to fill in the blank spaces).
"Who is that coming towards us?" "I can only imagine."