Home 9 Certainty and deduction

Certainty and deduction

Examples of modals expressing certainty and deduction 

Usage Modal Verb Example
Certainty (positive) Will Crime will increase unless stricter penalties are introduced.
Highly likely (positive) Must It must be terrible for people who have to spend time in prison for crimes they did not commit.
Likely (positive) Should/ ought to Stricter penalties should/ought to reduce crime.
Possible (positive) Might / could / may Education opportunities in prison might/may/could encourage prisoners to behave differently when they are released.
Possible (negative) Might not / may not Prisoners might not/may not re-offend if they are given rehabilitation counselling in prison.
Unlikely (negative) Should not / ought not to Crime levels should not/ought not to increase if the Government intervenes.
Highly unlikely (negative) Cannot / must not Current laws on crime cannot be/must not be working as crime levels continue to increase.
Certainty (negative) Will not The problem of crime will not be solved unless the Government introduces stricter penalties.

 

OTHER POSTS

Academic IELTS free reading test 2

Try this free IELTS reading practice test with instant band score. Passage 1: Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Passage 2: Cough Medicines and Cough Syrups Passage 3: The Tempest: Shakespeare’s Final Play

read more

Academic IELTS free reading test 1

Try this free IELTS reading practice test with instant band score. Passage 1: A running controversy Passage 2: The development of the magazine Passage 3: The dawn of culture

read more

Certainty and deduction

We hope you found this page useful! If you did, please share it with your friends 🙂

Go back to the homepage here.

Certainty and deduction