5 exercises — placing and choosing modal adverbs like probably, likely, and presumably to calibrate confidence in postmortems and code reviews.
Key patterns:
place modal adverbs like probably between auxiliary and main verb: will probably fail
use one precise hedge, not stacked hedges ("might possibly maybe")
presumably — inference from indirect evidence, not confirmed fact
match adverb strength to actual confidence: perhaps < probably/likely < almost certainly
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
A postmortem states: "The root cause was _____ a race condition in the retry logic, though the logs are incomplete." Which modal adverb best signals moderate confidence given the incomplete evidence?
"Probably" conveys moderate, appropriately hedged confidence, matching the caveat "though the logs are incomplete". "Certainly", "undoubtedly", and "definitely" (options A, C, D) all express near-total certainty, which would contradict the acknowledgment that the evidence is incomplete — using one of these would overstate the team's actual confidence and could mislead readers relying on the postmortem for follow-up action.
2 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly places the modal adverb in a technical claim about system behavior:
Modal adverbs of likelihood like "probably" are conventionally placed between the auxiliary and the main verb: will probably fail. Option A places it after the full verb phrase, which is less natural mid-sentence. Option B places it before the auxiliary "will", which is also non-standard for this adverb type. Option D is doubly wrong: it front-loads "probably" for stylistic emphasis and then contradicts itself by adding "definitely" at the end, mixing two different confidence levels in one sentence.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses a modal adverb to hedge a claim about the cause of a bug in a code review comment, avoiding overconfidence?
"Likely" strikes the right balance — a single, clear hedge appropriate for a reviewer who hasn't fully confirmed the diagnosis but has reasonable evidence. Option A ("clearly") overstates certainty for an unconfirmed diagnosis. Option B stacks two hedges ("might possibly"), which is redundant and reads as uncertain rambling. Option D stacks three hedges ("maybe, I think, possibly"), which is excessive and undermines the credibility of the comment — good technical hedging uses one precise marker, not a pile of them.
4 / 5
A design doc states: "_____, this approach will require a schema migration, but the exact scope is still being assessed." Which sentence-initial modal adverb correctly signals high-but-not-absolute confidence?
"Almost certainly" conveys strong confidence while still leaving a small margin of doubt, which matches the follow-up clause about scope still being assessed. "Perhaps" (option A) and "conceivably" (option C) suggest much lower confidence, more appropriate for speculative possibilities than for something described as needed. "Arguably" (option D) signals a debatable value judgment rather than a probability assessment, which doesn't fit a factual claim about a technical requirement.
5 / 5
Which sentence demonstrates the correct use of "presumably" to indicate an inference based on indirect evidence, rather than direct observation?
"Presumably" is used to mark a reasonable inference drawn from indirect evidence, without direct confirmation — exactly the case in option B, where the missing version-control entry leads to an inferred (not confirmed) explanation. Option A misuses "presumably" alongside "confirmed", which is contradictory since confirmation implies direct verification, not inference. Option C misapplies it to a mathematical certainty, where no inference is needed. Option D also misuses it: if the CI output directly shows the result, that is direct evidence, not something to hedge with "presumably".