Level 4 — Upper Intermediate · Spoken Argument
Drill 28: Sounding as Certain as Your Evidence Allows
Say a claim out loud with a modal verb or hedge that matches how sure you actually are — the spoken half of Lesson 28's modality and stance skills.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this drill, you should be able to:
- Say a modal verb or hedging adverb live that matches how confident the speaker actually is
- Attribute a claim to its source out loud, rather than stating a secondhand claim as personal certainty
- Keep a spoken claim's confidence level steady across a sentence, without drifting stronger by the end
Introduction
Lesson 28 trained you to read exactly how confident an author is from their modal verbs and hedges. Speaking with that same precision is harder — under time pressure, it's tempting to just say "this is true" instead of the more honest "this might be true." This drill trains you to reach for the right modal verb live, without overclaiming.
Shadow the Model
A recent internal report suggests that the new schedule may be reducing overtime, though this hasn't been confirmed across every team yet.
Listen once all the way through. Notice how "suggests," "may," and "though this hasn't been confirmed" are spread across the whole sentence — the hedge isn't one word bolted on at the end, it runs through the entire claim.
Your Turn
Your Turn
Think of something you believe but aren't fully certain about (a change at work, a habit, something you've heard secondhand). When the timer starts, say the claim using one modal verb or hedging adverb (may, might, possibly, seems to) and name the source if it isn't your own direct experience. Don't let your voice sound more certain than your words by the end of the sentence.
Speak now — one claim, one hedge, one honest source
Record Yourself
Record your hedged claim, then play it back and check whether your certainty stayed steady from first word to last.
Model Answer
Show a model answer
There's no single correct claim — what matters is the shape. For example: "I've heard from a couple of colleagues that the new shift system might be cutting down on late arrivals, though I haven't seen the actual numbers myself." Check that your hedge word appeared early, not tacked on as an afterthought, and that your source was named honestly.
Vocabulary in Context
modal verbnoun phrasetechnical
a verb like may, might, or could that marks how certain a statement is (মোডাল ক্রিয়া)
Often with use a modal verb, modal verb such as, weak modal verb
“'Might' is a weaker modal verb than 'will'.”
overclaimverbformal
to state something with more confidence than the evidence actually supports (অতিরিক্ত দাবি করা)
Often with overclaim the results, risk overclaiming, accused of overclaiming
“Saying the system 'eliminates errors' after one month would overclaim.”
Self-Check
Self-Check
- Did your modal verb or hedge word appear early in the sentence, not as a late add-on?
- Did you name your source when the claim wasn't from your own direct experience?
- Did your spoken confidence stay level, without sounding surer by the sentence's end?
- Did you speak directly in English, without translating from Bangla first?
Next: Speaking 29 — Cause, Explanation & Alternative Explanations: saying a causal claim out loud and immediately naming one thing that might explain it instead.