Show promise

To 'show promise' is to demonstrate a possibility for success in the future.

Today's story: Alzheimer's drug
Explore more: Lesson #538
Keywords:

Take control of your English

Use active strategies to finally go from good to great

Listen

  • Learning speed
  • Full speed

Learn

TranscriptQuizYour turn
Simple TranscriptEspañol中文FrançaisPortuguês日本語ItalianoDeutschTürkçePolski

Show promise

“A new drug called lecanemab has shown promise.” What does that mean to “show promise”?

Typically, when we think of promise, we think of a commitment. JR, I promise I’ll get you the recording of this lesson by the end of the day. That’s my commitment—I’m telling JR I will do that thing. I make a promise. In this sense, it’s always a person, or a group of people, making a promise.

But “show promise” is different. It can be a person, or it can be a thing. If something “shows promise” it’s not about making a commitment. Instead, it’s about showing potential. If something “shows promise,” it has demonstrated that it has potential—or we have seen that it has potential—to succeed in the future.

It has demonstrated that it has potential: so that means that something is uncertain, we don’t know if it’s going to work, we don’t know if it will ever be effective, we don’t know if it will be a success. But there are reasons to believe it might be. If something “shows promise,” we have a reason to think that it might work or be successful.

And today’s lesson was about a new drug—a drug that might slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease . Through the years, researchers have tried and tried to find a drug to do this, and over and over the drugs have been ineffective. But this drug shows promise. We have a reason to believe that it might be effective, and that came from the clinical trials.

But listen: “show promise” is not the same as, “it’s already good.” No: if something “shows promise,” it’s still early. We still don’t know if it’s going to be very good or effective in the long run.

We very often use “show promise” to refer to people, or to groups of people, or to businesses, that are not yet successful, but they might be successful in the future. Young athletes are a great example. I don’t know how it is in soccer, but in the sports I follow, it’s possible to watch a 19-year-old play and know whether he might have the talent to succeed at a higher level.

The sports I watch—baseball, American football, hockey, basketball—when players are 19, they’re not yet at the highest level. But you can look at someone play at that age and say, “he is showing some real promise at the plate.” In baseball, that means, it’s possible to see he has real talent, real potential, as a hitter. He’s not a star yet. But you can see he’s got the ability. He’s showing promise. We can see he has potential and we have a reason to think he might be a great hitter in the future. So we say, “He’s showing promise.”

Most new businesses fail. A lot of people get ideas, great ideas, for a product or a service. But for one reason or another, the businesses just never succeed. There are some businesses that are still in the early days—they’re not yet very profitable, they’re not yet hugely successful—but we still have reason to believe they might be successful in the future. Even in the early days, some businesses show promise.

It’s not a guarantee! But we have a reason to think it might be successful. Maybe they landed a few big customers; maybe they have progressively improve their product; maybe they are starting to get a large following on social media—whatever. We have a reason to think the business might be successful in the future, so we say, “The business is showing promise.”

You can say this about a new employee, too, typically a younger employee, people earlier in their careers. Where I used to work, we’d hire recent university graduates who were smart and had good grades. But it would take a while before they really made a big difference in the business. In those first few weeks, though, we’d be able to say, “She’s really showing some good promise” or “He’s not showing much promise at all.”

And those are two other ways to use “show promise.” If you say, “She’s showing some good promise” that means, she is showing that she has a lot of potential; the chances are good! Or, “He’s not showing much promise” means…well, the opposite. The chances are bad!

We don’t know for sure; in neither case do we know for sure. But if we say, “She’s showing good promise” that means we think there’s a high chance she will be successful. And if we say, “He’s not showing much promise” we think there’s a low chance that he will be successful.

Quote of the Week

Time for a quote of the week. Today’s is by Bill Nye, a television personality. He had an educational show called “Bill Nye the Science Guy”—I have no idea what he’s doing now. But here’s a quote from him: “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

I like that, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

See you next time!

And that’s it for Plain English today, January 16, 2023. Remember, the full lesson is available at PlainEnglish.com/538. That’s where we posted the word-for-word transcript of this lesson. One thing people do, they listen once to try to understand as much as possible. But let’s be honest, we all miss a little something. So a great thing to do is listen again and read the transcript as you’re listening. That’s a great way to reinforce in your brain the sound and the way the word looks.

So check that out, PlainEnglish.com/538. We’ll be back on Thursday for a new travel topic. On Thursday, I’ll be telling you all about Dublin, the capital of Ireland. See you then!

Learn more expressions like this

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Starter feature

Test your knowledge

Take a 4-question quiz to make sure you understand today’s Expression

Plus+ feature

Write a sentence with this Expression

Get personal, human feedback on the examples that you write. Build the confidence to use this Expression in the real world

Story: Alzheimer's drug