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01Hello!
02This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Renata in Brazil about the usage of the words perhaps and maybe.
03Dear teacher, I'm trying to learn English, but from now I have a question about what's the difference between perhaps and maybe?
04Thank you for writing to us, Renata.
05I'm happy to answer this question.
06The two words mean the same thing.
07We use them to express the idea that we are guessing or unsure about something.
08However, there are some differences in how we use the two words.
09Language researchers use the corpus of contemporary American English to study the usage of words.
10They have found that speakers of American English use maybe more than twice as often as the word perhaps.
11The corpus contains over one billion words collected from American print, video, and audio media.
12Here is an example of the use of maybe.
13Are you going to the beach this weekend?
14Maybe, but I need to check the weather first.
15In this situation, if a speaker used the word perhaps instead of maybe, it might sound too formal or serious in American English.
16However, in written English, we often use the word perhaps instead of maybe.
17You can find many examples of both of these words in stories on our website at learningenglish.voanews.com.
18In writing, we can use commas to place the word perhaps between phrases or clauses in a sentence.
19Consider this example.
20It is easy, perhaps, to train a young dog to obey its owner.
21But training an older dog might not be so easy.
22Note 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.
23Sometimes a writer will choose to use the word maybe instead of perhaps to communicate a particular feeling.
24Consider the following example.
25Government officials say the new trade deal will help the economies of both countries.
26Maybe.
27Such predictions have often been wrong in the past.
28Here, by using the word maybe, the writer communicates more strongly a feeling that the government officials might be wrong.
29Finally, be careful not to confuse the adverb maybe with the verb phrase may be.
30You can learn more about this by reading the Ask a Teacher program called Maybe and May Be are driving me crazy.
31For our readers and listeners, do you have a question about American English?
32Perhaps you would like to know how American English has changed over the years.
33Or maybe you just need to know how to use particular words.
34Whatever your question may be, send us an email at learningenglish at voanews.com And that's Ask a Teacher.
35I'm Andrew Smith.
36I'm Andrew Smith.
37I'm Andrew Smith.
38I'm Andrew Smith.
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