fair chance
12
2.4
- noun
:
posibilidad razonable
- Every student deserves a fair chance to succeed in their studies.
Examples
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And all contestants deserve a fair chance.
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I only ask that you give me a fair chance, as I am giving you.
Fiction book (1992) -
I think it has a fair chance, yes, I do.
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You gotta give a guy a fair chance.
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We have a fair chance to get good people to run this place, which means better living conditions for us.
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This man is a human being and deserves a fair chance in life!
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I hope you're gonna give this program a fair chance.
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There's a fair chance we can do that right now.
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They were out there to get a job done, and they deserved a fair chance.
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Racism is still very much a problem; minorities are not given a fair chance because they're not fair-skinned.
Blog text (11)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Possibility that something will happen, often an opportunity or risk
274
3.6
The chance that something will happen
26
4.0
A real chance to succeed despite the difficulty
1
3.5
A fair possibility of success that is not certain
The chance that something will happen
Antonyms
How Likely
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'fair' (reasonable/equitable) modifies 'chance' (likelihood), yielding the meaning 'a reasonable or equitable opportunity/likelihood.' This adjective + noun pattern is common and predictable cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Fair chance comes from the idea of fair meaning 'even and just' and chance meaning an opportunity; imagine a contest where everyone starts at the same line so each person has a real shot. That's why it means 'a reasonable likelihood' of success.