I mail parcels to my friends may be in China or in the USA

English as a Second Language Listening, speaking, pronunciation and accent
1

Report about post office

Woman: I mail the letters. Sometimes I mail parcels to my
friends may be in China or in the USA. I find the post office
very useful to me. I go there most, almost everyday.

Original text: ↓
I mail parcels to my friends may be in China or in the USA.

I think “may be” is incorrect in this sentence. ←

So which is grammatically and Semantically correct:

1- I mail parcels to my friends may be in China or in the USA.
2- I mail parcels to my friends maybe in China or in the USA.

may be OR maybe ?

Thank you

Video link: https://streamlala.com/28zXH

3 Likes
2

I think she is saying maybe, and that is the right word.

I would also use two sentences to write that.

Sometimes I mail parcels [um] to my friends. Maybe in China or the USA.

Those are two separate thoughts. I think it’s more accurate when written as two sentences. A sentence doesn’t have to be a “complete” sentence (subject - verb - noun ). That’s especially true in spoken language.

4 Likes
3

Interesting.
I heard/interpreted it as a single sentence and assumed she just left out the word “who”.
“I mail parcels to my friends, who may be in China or in the USA.”

As to the use of “may be” and “maybe”, this video may not be the best example. Maybe something like this:
They may be in China.
Maybe they are in China.

4 Likes
4

Thank you so much, NearlyNapping

2 Likes
5

Thank you so much, Arinker

But I still don’t know which is grammatically correct in this case.

3 Likes
6

The two examples Arinker gave are grammatically correct.

They may be in China.
Maybe they are in China.

Those two sentences are structured differently. You can not use maybe in the first sentence. You can not use may be in the second sentence.

One way to think of this is to remove those words and see what you have left.

They may be in China.
They in China.

Maybe they are in China.
They are in China.

See the difference?

4 Likes
7

Thank you so much, NearlyNapping :two_hearts:
Thank you so much, Torsten for your likes :two_hearts:

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8

I’d like to point out one more thing.
Despite our questions about missing words and the grammatical structure, we still understood exactly what she meant.

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9

Thank you so much, Arinker :two_hearts:

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10

  1. ‘Maybe’ means ‘Perhaps’, ‘Possibly’ etc.
    A: It looks like a wild cat not a tiger.
    B: Maybe.

  2. ‘May be’ is a ‘modal + verb’ combination.
    A: It looks like a wild cat not a tiger.
    B: Yes, it may be a cat bigger in size.

1. I mail parcels to my friends who may be in China or in the USA.
2. I mail parcels to my friends; maybe, they are in China or in the USA.

4 Likes
11

Thank you so much, Anglophile :two_hearts:

But I don’t want to change the original dialogue. :no_entry:

Original text:
I mail parcels to my friends may be in China or in the USA.

I watched this video several times.

She is saying:
I mail parcels to my friends; maybe in China or in the USA.
Is the above sentence correct?
Or it needs a little correction?

4 Likes
12

I mail parcels to my friends; maybe, in China or in the USA. (I think it should be acceptable with the semi colon and the comma).

4 Likes
13

Thank you so much, Anglophile :two_hearts:
Thank you so much, Torsten for your likes :two_hearts:

2 Likes