Hedging Exercises

Hedging Exercises - Introduction

The following 60 pages contain various exercises to help you become familiar with the use of different hedging devices.

All the examples are taken from authentic texts (no examples have been invented just for the purpose of these exercises). You can find the original source for each example by consulting the citation and finding the reference in the bibliography on the credits page.

These exercises are just that - exercises, not a test. Most questions provide feedback once correct answers are entered and you can complete the exercises as many times as you wish. However, if you need a record of your progress, you can see your results on the Hedging Results Page. These exercises include all the most important hedging devices including:

1. Lexical verbs (suggest, appear, seem, indicate, imply, tend …);
2. Modal verbs (could, might, may, would ..);
3. Adverbs (possibly, perhaps, probably, maybe, apparently, plausibly, ..);
4. Adjectives (probable, likely, certain, …);
5. Modal (stance) nouns (possibility, estimate, assumption…);
6. Adjectives and adverbs of approximation (more or less, approximately, roughly, around, somewhat, quite, essentially …);
7. Expressions of personal conviction or doubt (We believe, As far as we are aware, think, believe ….);
8. Explanatory phrases or sentences posing limits on how information should be interpreted.