"Chance/Reason" to complain [closed]

Question

Do these sentences sound natural and likely:

I'll never give you a chance to complain.

I'll never give you a reason to complain.

Do these sound fine?

Answer 1

Both sound correct, but they both mean different things. There may be more natural ways of saying them, but you haven't provided any context.

I'll never give you a chance to complain.

This means that you won't allow someone the opportunity to make a complaint, so they may have cause for complaint, but you won't allow it to be heard.

I'll never give you a reason to complain.

This means that you won't give someone any cause for complaint. In other words, you are promising to behave in such a way that they won't need to complain.

Answer 2

If someone has a chance [to do X], the strong implication is that they want to do X (so if it's possible, they probably will at least try to do it). That's to say, doing X is desirable (in some contexts, desirable from the speaker's perspective, but not necessarily from the subject's).

Having a reason to do something is often quite neutral as regards the desirability of that course of action - it's usually about necessity / compulsion.

In certain specific contexts (such as OP's cited example), having a reason to do it may carry the sense of justification (where the subject wants to do it, but cannot proceed unless and until certain preconditions are met, or certain arguments are presented). But this sense doesn't always apply, and won't normally be intended or understood unless there are other contextual factors supporting it.

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Simply put, I'll never give you a chance to complain ALWAYS strongly implies that the speaker believes the other person would like to find fault with his performance - so it's effectively a "hostile / defiant" form, which you should probably avoid when talking to a "suspicious, pessimistic" new employer.

It's important to note that the speaker's "defiance / determination" in the chance version is effectively focused on thwarting the other person's implied desire to find fault. On the other hand, in I'll never give you a reason to complain, the speaker's defiance is implicitly focused on doing nothing that the other person disapproves of - which would normally be the desired implication.

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DEFAULT INTERPRETATIONS:

I never had a chance to vote
- I wanted to vote, but was unable to do so

I never had a reason to vote
- I didn't care about voting anyway, regardless of whether I could (or even did) vote

Answer 3

A reason is a motivation to do something.

A chance is an opportunity to do something that you already have a reason for doing (we are assuming that you don't do things for no reason!)

Thus, these are not interchangeable words. Your first sentence, using "chance", actually sounds rude (or unintentionally funny, as it's so unlikely to ever be said), while your second ("reason") is commonly used.

"No chance to complain" = you will be unsatisfied and you will be ignored

If you say "I will give you no chance to complain", you are saying that you are not going to give any opportunity for the other person to make their complaint to you.

You don't care if someone is unhappy with you, because you will simply ignore them.

"No reason to complain" = you will be satisfied

Here, you're saying something completely different. You are promising that your behaviour or the quality of the work you are about to do will leave the other person so satisfied that they will have no motivation to make a complaint.