24/09/2026
Grammar Contamination in Thought
“I am 70% certain, therefore I shall use probably.”
Nobody thinks like this.
Yet this is still how many schools teach language:
definitely → almost certainly → probably → possibly → perhaps → maybe
As though speakers first calculate a percentage of certainty and then select the appropriate adverb.
They don’t.
When we say probably, maybe, I think, I’m pretty sure, it looks like, I’d imagine, must, might or could, we are doing far more than reporting a measurement of certainty.
We are responding to context, evidence, expectations, relationships, politeness, commitment, risk, and what we want the other person to understand.
A certainty scale can be a useful teaching device.
The problem begins when the learner mistakes the device for the way language actually works.
Grammar Contamination in Thought: when the model we use to explain language starts interfering with the way we think language is produced.
Language isn’t selected from a chart.
It emerges from meaning.
