Speculating About the Future: Bound To, On the Verge Of

Prices are bound to rise if demand keeps growing.

Notice

  • Prices are bound to rise if demand keeps growing.
  • The company is on the verge of announcing a merger.
  • We’re likely to see further delays given the current situation.
  • The technology is set to transform the industry within a decade.

Rule

Bound to expresses near-certainty about the future. On the verge of means something is about to happen imminently. Likely to and set to are common in news and analytical writing for confident predictions. These add precision beyond simple ‘will’ for expressing degrees of future certainty.

Practice

  1. Complete: ‘He’s worked so hard — he’s _____ (bound to) succeed.’
    Answer: bound to
  2. Complete: ‘The company is _____ (on the verge of) bankruptcy.’
    Answer: on the verge of
  3. Rewrite with ‘set to’: ‘The new law will probably change everything.’
    Answer: The new law is set to change everything.
  4. Which expresses more certainty: ‘likely to’ or ‘bound to’?
    Answer: ‘Bound to’ expresses near-certainty; ‘likely to’ expresses strong probability but slightly less certainty.

Connect

Read texts that use future-speculation language in context.

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CEFR: Reading — understand nuanced predictions and speculation in news and analytical texts.

Azizul Hakim
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