certain
part of speech
adjective (certain); determiner (a certain, certain)
meaning for a pupil
1) Certain means sure, with no doubt: «I am certain». tree →
2) A certain thing is one that will happen for sure. tree →
3) «A certain» means a particular one that is not named: «a certain boy in our class». tree →
4) «Certain» before a plural means some: «certain foods». tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: in chance problems an event that always happens (impossible, unlikely, even chance, likely, certain); also «a certain number» meaning some unknown number to find. In everyday life: «Are you certain?», «for certain». Phrases: «for certain», «make certain», «certain to», «a certain amount».
examples
- It is certain that the ball is red if all balls are red. tree →
- A certain number plus 5 is 12. tree →
- Is it certain, possible or impossible? tree →
- He thinks of a certain number. tree →
- It is certain that the sun will rise tomorrow. tree →
- Are you certain you locked the door? tree →
- Certain plants are poisonous to dogs. tree →
- Rain is likely but not certain. tree →
- “A schoolmate of his, a certain Pinocchio.” tree →
note
«Certain» is a bit stronger than «sure». «Certainly» means of course. Maths: «a certain number» is the unknown to find. In chance problems it means always (probability 1). Trap: «likely» is not «certain».
In the corpora
- Different families believe different things about what happens after death, and nobody knows for certain.
- Stripes might also confuse a lion trying to pick out one zebra from a running herd, but this is less certain.
- In tests honeybees learned to fly past a certain number of landmarks, up to about four, to find sugar water.
- Sleeping a lot saves energy when food is poor or comes only at certain times.
- Water can hold only a certain amount of salt; after that it is saturated and extra salt settles at the bottom.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «certain» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.