# Maybe



## Lemminkäinen

Hi 

In English "maybe" is a compound word, composed by "may be".

There are similar words in other languages:

*French:* _peut-être_ ("can be")
*Russian:* _может быть_ ("can be")
*Norwegian/Swedish:* _kanskje/kanske_ ("can happen")
*Danish:* _måske_ (I know "må" in Danish means somethings other than in Norwegian ("must"), but I'm not sure exactly what).

So the questions are i) is "maybe" a compound word in your language? ii) If it is, what does it mean, literally?

I'm curious whether this is an indo-european phenomena, or if it's like this in other languages as well.


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## Outsider

*Portuguese:*

Yes, it is a compound word:

_talvez_ = _tal_ + _vez_ (It's actually written as two words in Spanish)

Expaining what it means literally is more difficult. "Such time?" "Such turn?" I think the idea is something like "[there may be] a case/time when".

There is also another compound with the same meaning, _pode ser_, literally "it may be".


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## Joca

Hi Outsider:

In the Portuguese language there's a third word for "maybe": it's "quiçá". I know it's a rather formal word and usually restricted to literature, but I think it's worth while mentioning it. I don't know the origin of "quiçá". Could it come from Arabic or Italian, standing for "who knows?" in the latter case?

A fourth option is "porventura". 

Final observation: All the words - _talvez, pode ser, quiçá, porventura_ - are compounds actually.

Cheers,

JC


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## Outsider

True. _Quiçá_ is not as common in Portuguese as _quizá(s)_ is in Spanish.

_Porventura_ = _por + ventura_ actually has a straightforward translation in English: perchance.


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## übermönch

Lemminkäinen said:


> *French:* _peut-être_ ("can be")
> *Russian:* _может быть_ ("can be")
> *Norwegian/Swedish:* _kanskje/kanske_ ("can happen")
> *Danish:* _måske_ (I know "må" in Danish means somethings other than in Norwegian ("must"), but I'm not sure exactly what).
> *German:*vielleicht ("much easy", from Old high German vil lihte ("very easy"))
> *Ukrainian:*може бути ("can be")
> *Polish:*może być ("can be")


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## badgrammar

French: Peut-être
Turkish: Belki (de)


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## Outsider

Catalan has _potser_, which seems to be a compound, too, _pot_ + _ser_ "may be".


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## Cosol

In Italian: _forse_ or _può essere che (It can be that)_, but tha second one is less used and sounds informal.


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## avalon2004

In Greek, all these words have the meaning "maybe/possibly/perhaps":
*μήπως *[mípos] --> common (a possibly merging of the words _μη-no/not_ and _πως-how_, but not sure)
*ίσως* [ísos] --> common (linked to the word ίσος which means "equal")
*πιθανόν *[pithanón] --> sounds a bit formal (literally: "probable")
*ενδεχομένως* [endhekhoménos] --> a bit 'verbose' (ενδεχόμενο means "eventuality")
*μπας και* [bas ke] --> colloquial  (apparently a contracted form of μην πας και, which doesn't really translate)
*μην τάχα* [mindákha] --> not used very often (combination of _μην-not_ and _τάχα-supposed_)

The nearest translation to the English "maybe" is *μπορεί να *_[borí na]_, which is a verb form [_it can that..._], that is always followed by another verb...In other words it is exactly the same as the Spanish "puede que".


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## kanojo_

Slovene:

Mogoče, verjetno or možno. It really depends on the context.


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## ronanpoirier

Hungarian:
Talán

(That's the only word I know which has that meaning by now hehehe)


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## Cicerón

*Spanish:*

_Quizá , _from Latin_ qui sapit _('Who knows?')

or 

_Puede ser _(Can be)

or 

_Tal vez._


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## ameana7

badgrammar said:


> Turkish: Belki (de)


We use generally "belki" in Turkish, if we want to say, for example, "maybe it is yellow; maybe it is brown.", than we say "Belki sarıdır, belki de kahverengi". You have to be careful when writing "belki de". It is always written separately. But i must say, you speak Turkish really well Badgrammar.


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## Ilmo

In *Finnish* there are three words meaning "maybe":
*ehkä*
*kenties*
*kukaties*

The two latter are a combination of two words, *ken, kuka* = who, *ties = *(a bit shortened) 3rd person singular of the past tense of the verb *tietää* = to know, thus the meaning is in both cases *who knows.*


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## Thomas1

übermönch said:
			
		

> *Polish:*może być ("can be")


I'm afraid you got it wrong, übermönch. Your version would verbatim mean _may/can be_.

In Polish we say:
_może_
or
_być może_

The first one is not a compound and it means _may/can_. 
The second one is a compound and
_być_ means _be,
może_ means _may/can._

Tom


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## keepsakes

可能 (simplified Chinese), it's hard to say what it means literally, because it's not really a compound... so "maybe/can be possible"


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## betulina

Outsider said:


> Catalan has _potser_, which seems to be a compound, too, _pot_ + _ser_ "may be".



It is.


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## Flaminius

*Japanese:*
Statements with low possibilities are introduced by following phrases;
多分・・・ (tabun)  There is more than a good possibility that...
恐らく・・・ (osoraku) I am afraid that...
もしかすると・・・ (moshika suru-to) Somehow...

And they are concluded with another set of expressions as below;
・・・だろう (-darō) the most typical remark to conclude a speculative statement. 
・・・かもしれない (-kamo shirenai) Possibilities cannot be excluded that...


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## linguist786

*Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati* does not have this compound phonomenon:

*HIN/URD:* "shaa'id"
*GUJ:* "kadaach"

which are all just one word.


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian we use "_*poate*_". It's a strange word (I think so anyway), because it also is the third person singular of "_a putea_" (to can, like the It. _potere_, fr. _pouvoir_). So, is it a compound word? No, or maybe yes!? What do you guys think?? 

 robbie


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## Ilmo

But, Lemminkäinen, maybe maybe isn't the only maybe word in English.
What do you say about the following list that I got from my dictionary:
*maybe*
possibly, perhaps, might be, could be

In a similar way also in Finnish you could use the adverb *mahdollisesti* (possiby) or a corresponding verb *saattaa* (may) to indicate the same insecurity as by using the adverb maybe.
Or is there any difference of meaning, when you say:
Maybe he comes
Possibly he comes
He may come
Perhaps he comes


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## Jeedade

Cosol said:


> In Italian: _forse_ or _può essere che (It can be that)_, but tha second one is less used and sounds informal.


There's also "magari", I've always wondered where that stems from.
Similar to Spanish and Portuguese, there is also "chissà" which has more the meaning of "who knows" but is used as "perhaps" as well.

In Dutch you say "misschien".


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## badgrammar

ameana7 said:


> We use generally "belki" in Turkish, if we want to say, for example, "maybe it is yellow; maybe it is brown.", than we say "Belki sar?d?r, belki de kahverengi". You have to be careful when writing "belki de". It is always written separately. But i must say, you speak Turkish really well Badgrammar.



Sagol, ameana!  Are there any other Turkish words for maybe?  As in perhaps, might be...?


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## iar

It isn't a compound word at all in Welsh. It's-

efallai

And I can't see any two words in there at all. I don't know its origin.


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## Nino pirosmani

*Georgian:*
There are two words for it in georgian.
The first one is pronounced [sheidzleba]- not compound and not meaning anything literally.
The second one is pronounced [shesadzloa]- a compound word (shesadzlo-a) meaning "can be".


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## samanthalee

Chinese：
多半是……（duobanshi) [more than half is……]There is more than a good possibility that...
恐怕是……(kongpashi) [fear scared is……] I am afraid that...
也许……（yexu) [also allow……] Maybe/Possible
可能（keneng）[can able] Maybe/Possible
大概……（dagai）[big approximate……] Probably


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## panjabigator

linguist786 said:


> *Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati* does not have this compound phonomenon:
> 
> *HIN/URD:* "shaa'id"
> *GUJ:* "kadaach"
> 
> which are all just one word.



Could the phrase /ho saktaa hai/ be what they are looking for as well?  I feel like this is also a cognate for the spanish "puede ser."


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## Etcetera

There's one more word in Russian that is often used in the same meaning as может быть - возможно. 
But it seems to me that the second implies more probability, so to say.


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## vince

Cantonese:
ho-nang (it's related to Mandarin ke-neng)


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## roh3x2n

Farsi/hindi/urdu

Shaa'yed


hemkaan dara.


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## amikama

Hebrew: *אולי* (_ulay_) (not a compound word).

Other possible expressions:
*יכול להיות* (literally "can be", like Spanish "puede ser")
*יתכן* ("it's possible")


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## Child_of_darkness

what is intresting polish maybe - może is read the same way as morze - sea.


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## Cepkah

badgrammar said:


> Turkish: Belki (de)



''Belki de'' means also perhaps ''belki'' means perhaps

Turkish: Ol-abilir same meaning in english may be
            be-can

Bulgarian: ''може би'' it sounds like ''moje bi'' and the same meaning..
                Can-be

Azerbaijani: ol-abilər the same meaning
                be-can


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## kusurija

In Czech: There's several variants, all of one word:
možná (possible; cf. gender lossed)
snad
asi 
nejpíš(e)

and one composed word:
pravděpodobně (pravda = the truth, podobný = is similar to)


In Lithuanian:
galbūt (gali - can, būti - be)
turbūt (turi - must, būti - be)
tikriausiai (tikras - true (adj.) tikriausiai - mostly true (adverb in III. degree)


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## bb3ca201

The most common in Gaelic is " 's docha" (you can also use "ma dh'fhaoidte", but this again sounds more formal; the first translation is the most common spoken form)


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## ThomasK

Dutch has not been mentioned, I think: 
  misschien = mag geschieden = may happen = may be 

QED !


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## ThomasK

It would be interesting if some of the above words could be analysed, like the Gaelic, Farsi, Hindi.

I also wondered whether "maybe" always means the same, i.e., possibly. Does it, do you think? Has anyone ever noticed/ thought that 'maybe' might not mean perfectly the same as its supposed equivalent in a foreign language?


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