Researchers investigated whether people can predict upcoming words in a sentence based on discourse context. In an ERP experiment, participants heard Dutch stories that supported the prediction of a specific noun. Stories were continued with a gender-marked adjective that mismatched the upcoming noun's syntactic gender. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a differential ERP effect, which disappeared in a no-discourse control experiment. In self-paced reading, prediction-inconsistent adjectives slowed readers before the noun. These findings suggest that people can predict upcoming words in fluent discourse and that these predicted words can immediately participate in incremental parsing. Anticipation is crucial for survival and daily life, influencing everything from avoiding danger to making decisions. Evidence suggests that anticipation is also central to language use, such as predicting conversation turns or completing sentences. This study explores whether listeners and readers can use discourse context to predict specific upcoming words. The results indicate that people can indeed predict upcoming words in fluent discourse, and these predictions can influence parsing processes. The study used ERP and self-paced reading experiments to examine prediction in discourse. In ERP experiments, participants heard stories with a critical adjective that either matched or mismatched the expected noun's gender. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a differential ERP effect, suggesting that discourse context can influence word prediction. In self-paced reading, prediction-inconsistent adjectives slowed reading before the noun, indicating that predictions affect processing. The findings support the idea that people can predict upcoming words in discourse and that these predictions can influence parsing. The study also highlights the importance of syntactic and semantic information in making predictions. While traditional models of language comprehension emphasize bottom-up processing, the results suggest that context-based prediction is a significant factor in language processing. The study challenges the notion that prediction is only relevant at the lexical level and shows that it can influence higher-level processing. The results have implications for understanding how people process language in real-time and how discourse context affects comprehension.Researchers investigated whether people can predict upcoming words in a sentence based on discourse context. In an ERP experiment, participants heard Dutch stories that supported the prediction of a specific noun. Stories were continued with a gender-marked adjective that mismatched the upcoming noun's syntactic gender. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a differential ERP effect, which disappeared in a no-discourse control experiment. In self-paced reading, prediction-inconsistent adjectives slowed readers before the noun. These findings suggest that people can predict upcoming words in fluent discourse and that these predicted words can immediately participate in incremental parsing. Anticipation is crucial for survival and daily life, influencing everything from avoiding danger to making decisions. Evidence suggests that anticipation is also central to language use, such as predicting conversation turns or completing sentences. This study explores whether listeners and readers can use discourse context to predict specific upcoming words. The results indicate that people can indeed predict upcoming words in fluent discourse, and these predictions can influence parsing processes. The study used ERP and self-paced reading experiments to examine prediction in discourse. In ERP experiments, participants heard stories with a critical adjective that either matched or mismatched the expected noun's gender. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a differential ERP effect, suggesting that discourse context can influence word prediction. In self-paced reading, prediction-inconsistent adjectives slowed reading before the noun, indicating that predictions affect processing. The findings support the idea that people can predict upcoming words in discourse and that these predictions can influence parsing. The study also highlights the importance of syntactic and semantic information in making predictions. While traditional models of language comprehension emphasize bottom-up processing, the results suggest that context-based prediction is a significant factor in language processing. The study challenges the notion that prediction is only relevant at the lexical level and shows that it can influence higher-level processing. The results have implications for understanding how people process language in real-time and how discourse context affects comprehension.