Is maybe all one word

gou said:

Hey,
What is the difference between «might be» and «may be»?

«It might be that…»
«It may be that…»

Hola gou;
They are Synonyms…Either can be used..

Main Entry: maybe
Part of Speech: adverb
Definition: possibly
Synonyms: can be, conceivable, conceivably, could be, credible, feasible, imaginably, might be, obtainable, perchance, perhaps, weather permitting

te gato

mjscott said:

I cannot say for sure, but as a native English speaker, I use
«It might be that…» when I am grasping for something outside of myself and am making an educated guess as to what «it might be».
I use
«It may be that…» when I have an idea as to what the reason is, as to what it may be.

Examples:

Why is he so irritable? «It might be that he’s just tired today.» (I’m guessing as to what might be causing his irritablilty.)

Why is he so irritable? «It may be that his baby kept both him and his wife up all night last night.» (I’m more specific as to what I think may be the cause of his irritability.)

Other English speakers?
Experts with a rule?

(….And, yes, it’s him—not he. You could also say, «…his wife and him up all night last night.»

I would get no difference in meaning from your example sentences. I would pick up more difference from body language, facial expressions, etc.

gou said:

Thanks.
Is «maybe» one word in all cases?

Hola gou,
No not in all cases..
but used as one word mostly now.
May be was used a long time ago…Not so much now.
te gato

jacinta said:

Ooops. I say «may be» a lot. Makes me feel very old when someone says that it was used long ago!
It may be cheaper at Kmart.
I may not go because I just don’t have the time.

I suppose it’s a matter of personal choice here. They are synonymous. Maybe is a separate word, an adverb. May be is an auxiliary verb conjugation.

Maybe I will go. I’m not sure yet.
I may be going. I’m not sure yet.

Hola jacinta;
HA HA HA I was not implying that you were OLD…Just that the dictionary said that it was the old way of saying it…So the dictionary called you old not me!!
te gato

jacinta said:

Ooops. I say «may be» a lot. Makes me feel very old when someone says that it was used long ago!
It may be cheaper at Kmart.
I may not go because I just don’t have the time.

I suppose it’s a matter of personal choice here. They are synonymous. Maybe is a separate word, an adverb. May be is an auxiliary verb conjugation.

Maybe I will go. I’m not sure yet.
I may be going. I’m not sure yet.

Have you seen «maybe» in stead of «maybe» for the meaning «perhaps»?

I don’t recall seeing it, but right now I’m reading a book that deliberately uses older forms of English in order to set a «mood» (this is going back a couple centuries), and all sorts of words are deliberately separated there such as:

no one
no body
every one

It’s quite interesting actually. Words are continuously being joined. I find this out as I write a compound word, feeling sure it is WRONG, then find out my spellchecker accepts it (because it is now correct). Ironically, my spellchecker does not accept «spellchecker as a word».

Gaer

sperdomo said:

Hi everybody,

May and might are both modal auxiliaries. They belong to a class of verbs that include other words like should, can, could, would, etc… Historically (a hundred years, or more, ago) might was the past tense of may, much in the same way that could is the past tense of can today. But currently they both have a present tense meaning.

May + verb! Remember that may and might can be followed by any verb, not just be.

I may run
I may start smoking
It might rain… etc…

The difference between these words has to do with probability or certainty.
Modals can be arranged on the following continuum. The ones on the top show a HIGH degree of probability. The ones on the bottom show a low degree of probability.

It will rain tomorrow Highest degree of probability
It should rain tomorrow
It may rain tomorrow
It could/might rain tomorrow Lowest degree of probability

These questions are fun to answer! I am studying linguistics and we are reading about modals this week!
S.

For me, these have the same meanings, in writing. In other words, all will give me the same feeling of «perhaps»:

It may rain tomorrow.
It could/might rain tomorrow.

But in other sentences, I agree with you. «May» would indicate a higher probability than «might».

This is REALLY a delicate point, don’t you think?

jacinta said:

And I will add that, for the life of me, I cannot see any difference between «it may rain» and «it might rain».

If you eat those 10 donuts, you may feel sick.
If you eat those 10 donuts, you might feel sick.
If you eat those donuts, you could feel sick.

All give the possibility. Actually, I feel a little sick writing this sentence three times

I feel the same way. But as I started to say that when I last responded, I followed with another sentence, quite by accident, in which I wrote «might», and when I thought about using «may» instead, it felt different to me.

Now I can’t think of one example. Language is truly an elusive thing…

Gaer

Artrella said:

Maybe (adverb) = perhaps >> Maybe she got lost.

There may be other problems that we don’t know about. >>>> possibility

This tendency is called «up-grading» of units. There is a hierarchical cline, which indicates that words are first paired into syntactic groups, then they may become collocations, later composite and compound lexemes and then may ginally end up by developing into the direction of «monolithicity», i.e. the unit is no longer felt as a compound but only one word.

Eg,

cupboard -vineyard-paperback-blackmail >>> these words were compound words in their origins but then they turned into one single word.

I know this happens continually in German. Does it also happen in Spanish and French, I wonder?

Gaer

gaer said:

I know this happens continually in German. Does it also happen in Spanish and French, I wonder?

Gaer

Hola Guys
Do you think MAYBE/MAY BE we are done with this thread..
te gato

te gato said:

You may be right, although maybe others might not be ready to quit.

gou said:

I’ve always thought that «maybe» and «may be» were different.

Maybe it’s true. May be it’s true.
It may be true. It maybe true.

Can anyone clearify this for me?

Do you know the difference between an adverb and a verb?

It may be true=it might be true=it could be true. These are verbs. Here may, might and could are called «modal verbs». They are a bit strange.

Maybe it’s true=Maybe it is true. The word «is» now becomes the verb. Maybe becomes a modifying word expressing possibility.

These are similar.

Maybe it’s true.
Possibly it’s true.

Here «maybe»=»possibly».

Does this help, or have I made it worse?

Gaer

About the how possibility an incident can be, we have lots of modals in English language, please tell the degree of possibility of the following.

1) They could have killed him.

2) They may have killed him.

3) They might have killed him.

Very possibly yours, thanks a lot.

Shu_Fen said:

About the how possibility an incident can be, we have lots of modals in English language, please tell the degree of possibility of the following.

1) They could have killed him.

2) They may have killed him.

3) They might have killed him.

Very

sincerely

yours, thanks a lot.

All three mean about the same thing to me.