TESOL/Probability

What is a 30% chance in English?

English provides many ways to express different levels of probability, or chance. This is only about the objective chances of something happening, not the speaker's expectation, bias, or belief about it happening. For more information on that, see Belief in English.

Part of Speech	0%	10%	30%	50%	80%	90%	100%
Adverb	certainly not absolutely not	just possibly	probably not	possibly maybe	probably	almost certainly	certainly absolutely no doubt without a doubt
Adjective	impossible	just possible	unlikely doubtful improbable	possible uncertain	probable likely	almost certain	certain inevitable sure (It was sure. I was sure.)
Modal verb	mustn't be can't/couldn't be won't	needn't be (alternative) might even be	can be/could be	might be may	ought to be should be	really ought to be really should be	must be will
Noun	no way	off chance slight chance long shot	chance	(a/any/some) way	good chance good bet	near certainty	certainty sure thing
Phrase					be supposed to		be bound to

Note that likely is usually an adjective even though it ends in -ly.

Quiz

1 It will - rain. (80%)

	probably
	probable
	bound to
	certainly not

2 That person - be the president. (0%)

	might
	can
	certainty
	can't

3 It's - that the trains will stop tomorrow. (30%)

	impossible
	needn't
	unlikely
	off chance

4 Winning would be a - with this low score. (10%)

	long shot
	certainty
	sure thing
	no way

5 There's - you can get me to come to your birthday party. (0%)

	almost certain
	might be
	possible
	no way

See also

• Belief in English