It is important when you are writing to show how sure you are about something. In other words, you need to show the degree of certainty.
Look at the following examples:
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It is not known, and will probably never be known, when he began writing poetry. The answer almost certainly lay in the sack of papers that Susan Owen, on her son's strict instructions, burnt at his death. |
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Less finished, but more intimate, is a passage from a fragmentary "Ballad of a Morose Afternoon", written most probably some time after he had left Dunsden. |
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There were, broadly, two interrelated reasons for this, the first relating to Britain's economic and Imperial difficulties, the second to the internal dissension in all three parties, a symptom perhaps of the need for a realignment of political parties. |
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Verbs |
Degree of certainty |
| complete |
is (not) |
certain(ly) |
| strong |
can/cannot |
probably (is) |
| partial |
could (not) |
likely/unlikely |
| less strong |
may (not) |
possibly (not) |
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impersonal (i.e. no commitment) |
It is said that ... |
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