Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Modality | 671

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Be bound to

404c

Be bound to

means ‘be very certain to’, and expresses strong predictions or

inevitability:

You’ll have to remind me to bring that book. I

’m bound to forget otherwise.

She had to go through two lots of X-rays. It 

was bound to be painful for her.

The negative of be bound to for making predictions is be bound not to, but it is

very rare:

[predicting the result of a sports competition between England and Scotland;

scrape a win

means win by a narrow margin; two legs means two separate

events; stroll it means win easily]

England will probably scrape a win over two legs, but they will not stroll it and

it

’s bound not to be pretty.

Be bound to

also less frequently has a meaning of ‘be obliged to’; the negative

form not bound to usually means ‘not obliged to/not committed to’:

I

’m bound to admit that there could be serious problems.

I

’m not bound to deliver a lecture on my family affairs, I have not undertaken

to do it, and I’m not going to do it.