Expressions with the word DOUBT

When you're just beginning to study English, it's predictable that you'll let Portuguese (which is our mother tongue in this case) influence your studies. A perfect example for that is when you want to ask someone a question and instead of saying "you have a question", you say that "you have a doubt". That sounds natural to beginners because we say it the same way in Portuguese: Professor, eu tenho uma dúvida! The problem is that saying you have a doubt or are in doubt in English does not imply someone's supposed to answer you. If you want your questions answered, you'd better say "you have a question". That's a matter of culture and therefore should be respected.

And speaking of the word doubt, there are some expressions I want to introduce to you. The first example is "to give the benefit of doubt". For example, one of your children broke your favorite vase. You don't know who that was, but you have an idea. So you go up to that specific child and ask him: was it you who broke the vase? And of course he says he didn't. Since you can't be 100% sure he was the one who broke your vase, you give him the benefit of doubt. That means you regard him as innocent until proven otherwise. That's something you do when you want to judge in someone's favor because the evidence is neither for them nor against them.

Now imagine you're reading the best book of your life. When you're finally through with the reading, you go talk to your friend about it and here's what you say: This books is without a shadow of a doubt the best book I've ever read. The expression "without a shadow of a doubt" is very intuitive. We just say it the same way in Portuguese, right? "sem sombras de dúvida". So this time the expression goes with no further explanations. That's all for today guys. Talk to you next time!