Modals — certainty & probability — The Invisible Hand in Every Boardroom
Grammar: Modal Verbs
Free ESL grammar exercise on modals — certainty & probability themed around the invisible hand in every boardroom. Printable worksheet from EnglishPlans.com.
What's on this worksheet
A Business English ESL grammar exercise on business, practising modal verbs. The worksheet has a short reading excerpt, a grammar reference and graded practice items.
From the reading
A manager who has privately concluded that a project must continue tends to rationalise neutral data as encouraging. The sunk-cost fallacy may be the most costly bias in corporate life.
Grammar: Modal Verbs
- Certainty — must
- This must be the reason sales dropped in Q3. — near-certain deduction from evidence
- Probability — should
- The new process should reduce errors by around 15%. — confident expectation, not guaranteed
Sample items
- The anchoring figure in the opening bid ______ have shaped the entire negotiation without anyone realising.
- Restructuring now ______ save the division, but the board is still hesitant to act.
- The dip in employee engagement scores ______ reflect the new appraisal system rather than workload.
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