The adverb MAYBE

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello! How is it going? Thanks in advance!
Here it?s my question.

Must I always use a simple future with the
adverb “Maybe”? I?ve always seen it
that way but… what if I use a
simple present instead? Would the
sentece be grammatically correct?
In that case, have both of them
got the same meaning?

EX: Maybe you WILL know how to put
an end to it all.
Maybe you KNOW how to put
an end to it all.

Jes?s.

2

Dear Jesus

Maybe is used like “Perhaps” to suggest that something is likely to happen or may be true, but you are not certain about it. The word “maybe” could be used in any tense, i.e, past, present and future. See below:

1- Maybe I was wrong about Karen; I do not know.
2- Jesus, if I ask you to come to Pakistan and
meet me here, maybe you will accept the invitation and
maybe you will not. :lol:

3- Maybe our dear Amy knows the correct usage of “maybe”
and maybe she will soon tell you. :smiley:

I hope this helps

Tom

3

Hi, Tom! Thanks again for your replies. But I?m a little bit confused about if there?s any difference between using a simple present or a simple future. If you take a look at my example, you will see that both seem to mean the same thing, not?. Why? I used a simple present in one of them and a future simple in the other, what?s the difference then?.

THanks in advance!

4

Hi Jesus

In your examples, using the future tense changes things a bit.

“Maybe you know” means basically “I think it’s possible that you know” or “I hope you know” (now or in general).

“Maybe you will know”:

  • The person you’re talking to hasn’t actually received all the details about the problem yet and so it isn’t yet possible to say or even to guess whether he knows the answer. But in the future, it will be possible to say whether he/she knows or not.

Does that help?

Amy