English · Advertising, Consumers and Safety

Expressing certainty, probability & possibility

Choosing must, might, or likely to on the strength of the evidence in front of you

  • Experimental sciences important
  • Mathematics important
  • Engineering important
  • Management and economics important

6 minutes

The academic content is in Arabic, as at the BAC and as in the app.

What the syllabus expects from you

  • Modal expressions of certainty/probability/possibility (must be, may/might/could be, is likely to)

The method

  1. Rank the modals by strength: must (certain) > may/might/could (possible)

The common mistakes

  • Using 'must' for a weak guess instead of a strong deduction

From the lesson

A street vendor sells miracle weight-loss pills for a tenth of the pharmacy price. The bottle has no expiry date, and the label carries several spelling mistakes.

The vocabulary

  • likely to (من المرجح أن)
  • might/could (قد)

What is not on the syllabus

  • Gerund vs present simple (treated separately, next concept)

Builds on