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Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Renata in Brazil about the usage¹ of the words "perhaps" and "maybe."

Question

Dear Teacher,

I'm trying to learn English, but from now I [have] a question about what's the difference between "perhaps" and "maybe".

Answer

Thank you for writing to us, Renata. I'm happy to answer this question.

The two words mean the same thing. We use them to express the idea that we are guessing or unsure about something. However, there are some differences in how we use the two words.

Language researchers use the Corpus of Contemporary American English to study the usage of words. They have found that speakers of American English use "maybe" more than twice as often as the word "perhaps." The Corpus contains over one billion words collected from American print, video, and audio² media.

Here is an example of the use of "maybe:"

A: Are you going to the beach this weekend?

B: Maybe-but I need to check the weather first.

In this situation, if a speaker used the word "perhaps" instead of "maybe," it might sound too formal, or serious, in American English.

However, in written English, we often use the word "perhaps" instead of "maybe." You can find many examples of both of these words in stories on our website at learningenglish.voanews.com.

In writing, we can use commas to place the word "perhaps" between phrases or clauses⁴ in a sentence. Consider this example:

It is easy, perhaps, to train a young dog to obey its owner. But training an older dog might not be so easy.

Note that if we put the word "maybe" in place of "perhaps" in this writing example, it might not seem like good writing to a native speaker.

Sometimes a writer will choose to use the word "maybe" instead of "perhaps" to communicate a particular feeling. Consider the following example:

Government officials say the new trade deal will help the economies of both countries. Maybe. Such predictions have often been wrong in the past.

Here, by using the word "maybe," the writer communicates more strongly a feeling that the government officials might be wrong.

Finally, be careful not to confuse the adverb "maybe" with the verb phrase "may be." You can learn more about this by reading the Ask a Teacher program called "Maybe and May Be Are 'Driving Me Crazy.'"

Words in This Story

comma -n. a punctuation⁵ mark that often separates clauses, phrases, or words in a series

phrase -n. a group of words that express an idea but do not form a complete sentence

clause³ -n. a group of words expressing an idea that can, on their own, form a sentence

adverb -n. a word that modifies a word expressing action, time, place, manner or degree