I am a bit confused by the description of the meaning of はずがない.
If you look at one of the example sentences that has been checked for accuracy it says
「彼女が約束を破ったはずがない。」 She cannot have broken her promise.
However, the definition at the top of this page says that はずがない means "It shouldn't be A". In English, "cannot have" and "shouldn't have" are very different meanings. So, if I hadn't seen the English translation of this sentence, I would assume that it meant "She shouldn't have broken her promise." This is a very different meaning to "She cannot have broken her promise." It seems that all the example sentences use "can't" rather than "shouldn't". Can someone clarify this for me, please.
Thank you for the message - I agree, the English definition lacks clarity. I believe that "shouldn't" can be a valid interpretation, in the sense of stating something that shouldn't have happened (かぎがかかっているはずじゃない - It shouldn't be locked) - but when it comes to a willful action by the subject, I believe that 'cannot' is a closer fit.
How does this sound for a better fit: Cannot be [A], should not be [A] (when describing a situation, not the actions of the subject)
Yes, I think that English definition is much more helpful. That shows the different ways that it can be used. It might be nice to have them set up as two different examples so we get practice thinking of the different uses and get many different user sentences using both varieties.
Updated the meaning. I am hesitant to split it into two different meanings because it would add a bit more granularity to the grammar library than I would be comfortable with. However, as time goes by, we should be able to get additional example sentences/phrases that help identify both 'usages'.
What if はずがない follows a negative? For instance take this sentence: 四六時中、怪しげな実験を繰り返しているあの人のことだ。厄介ことに巻き込まれないはずがない。 Since is a double negation, it means that the professor performing those experiments will definetly end up in trouble?
