{"id":11186,"date":"2018-02-24T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T00:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/?p=11186"},"modified":"2023-01-06T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T04:40:09","slug":"bep-319-english-idioms-for-expressing-degrees-of-certainty-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/2018\/02\/24\/bep-319-english-idioms-for-expressing-degrees-of-certainty-1\/","title":{"rendered":"BEP 319 &#8211; English Idioms for Expressing Degrees of Certainty (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-11186-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/BEP319-Certainty1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/BEP319-Certainty1.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/BEP319-Certainty1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><a title=\"BEP 319 Lesson Module - English Idioms for Expressing Degrees of Certainty (1)\" href=\"https:\/\/businessenglishpod.com\/learningcenter\/Premium2008\/content18\/BEP319POD\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1-600x259.jpg\" alt=\"BEP 319 - Business English Idioms for Expressing Degrees of Certainty (1)\" width=\"600\" height=\"259\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-11182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1-600x259.jpg 600w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1-300x130.jpg 300w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1-200x86.jpg 200w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1-400x173.jpg 400w, https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/BEP-319-Lesson-English-Idioms-Degrees-Certainty-1.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to Business English Pod for today&#8217;s lesson on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/category\/business-idioms\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">English idioms<\/a> for expressing degrees of certainty.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s an old saying in English that &#8220;nothing is certain except death and taxes.&#8221; The idea behind that expression is that we can&#8217;t really be sure of anything. Of course, that doesn&#8217;t stop us from talking about what might happen or will probably happen or what is unlikely to happen.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of discussion is all about degrees of certainty. In other words: how sure you are about something. It&#8217;s important to know, or at least to guess, how certain something is. How else can you plan? How else can you decide the right course of action? And just like other common topics of discussion, English has many idioms for expressing certainty. In today&#8217;s lesson, we&#8217;re going to look at some of these expressions.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll hear a conversation between Maria, Tom, and Gavin, who work for a company that makes mobile apps for children. The three colleagues are talking about several new ideas being considered in the company. More specifically, they&#8217;re discussing how certain they are about the potential for each app.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listening Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1.\tWhat does Maria think about the app called Waffle Bunnies?<br \/>\n2.\tWhich app does Maria think they can successfully market and sell?<br \/>\n3.\tWhat expression does Tom use to show how certain he is that the music-making app will be a success?<\/p>\n<p>[tp no_translate=&#8221;y&#8221;]<strong>Premium Members: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/learningcenter\/Premium2008\/content18\/BEP319SN-Certainty1.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">PDF Transcript<\/span><\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/learningcenter\/Premium2008\/content18\/BEP319QIZ\/presentation.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Quizzes<\/span><\/a> | <a href=\"\/learningcenter\/Premium2008\/content18\/BEP319PC.mp3\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">PhraseCast<\/span><\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/learningcenter\/Premium2008\/content18\/BEP319POD\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Lesson Module<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Download: <a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/bizpod\/BEP319-Certainty1.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Podcast MP3<\/a><\/strong>[\/tp]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn English idioms for expressing how certain you are something will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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