The word "portends" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe something that is an indication or warning of a future event. For example, "The dark clouds portend a snowstorm later in the day."
No one is saying that today's digital dark age portends any such disaster.
The economic crisis, ironically, has been a psychological boost; to Germans, the social-market economy looks more like a solution than a cause.This portends a Germany that can be both more assertive and more useful to its allies.
The state of the economy also portends Democratic losses (see article).
Several recent incidents, reported through internet chat sites, tell of citizens beating up overly aggressive agents of the feared Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the 9,000-strong 9,000-strongrce charged with upholding public propriety.Change within institutions is slower, but portends more significant results.
But a recent split in the country's trade-union federation, a key ally of the ruling party, portends important shifts in South Africa's post-apartheid politics.Since the first democratic elections in 1994 the ANC has ruled in a three-way alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party.
But in the race for the grey vote, the two men are now running neck-and-neck.In this section Age shall not wither them Their poster boy Reprints Related items The youth vote: Their poster boyOct 30th 2008 The presidential election: It's timeOct 30th 2008This lively fight portends a broader shift.
A millennium of misery ensued, with ignorance and poverty the rule until the Renaissance dawned.No one is saying that today's digital dark age portends any such disaster.
If confirmed, his first responsibility will be to fix the ISS, an albatross that is billions over budget.Mr O'Keefe's record portends a gloomy future for fans of manned space flight, as well as for those who see the agency as a sort of guaranteed jobs programme for needy aerospace engineers.
Some worry that his victory portends a return to the dangerous streets and dysfunctional government that the city endured in the 1980s.
It takes the wishful thinking of a desperate Tory, or unusual paranoia on the part of the Labour Party, to believe seriously that either outcome portends mass working-class abstention in a general election.No crisis then.
But complaints that this reveals prejudice and portends a miscarriage of justice seem misguided, particularly as the jury is comprised of local Missouri citizens (three of the 12 members are black).
