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Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Renata in Brazil about the usage of the words “perhaps” and “maybe.”
你好！本周《名师答疑》，我们回答来自巴西的雷娜塔提出的一个问题：perhaps和maybe这两个词的用法。
Dear Teacher, I'm trying to learn English, but from now I [have] a question about what's the difference between "perhaps" and "maybe".
亲爱的老师，我正在努力学习英语，但现在我有一个问题：perhaps和maybe有什么区别？
Thank you for writing to us, Renata.
感谢你给我们写信，雷娜塔。
I’m happy to answer this question.
我很高兴回答这个问题。
The two words mean the same thing.
这两个词的意思是一样的。
We use them to express the idea that we are guessing or unsure about something.
我们用这两个词来表示我们正在猜测或不确定某事。
However, there are some differences in how we use the two words.
然而，在如何使用这两个词方面存在一些差异。
Language researchers use the Corpus of Contemporary American English to study the usage of words.
语言研究者使用“当代美国英语语料库”来研究单词的用法。
They have found that speakers of American English use “maybe” more than twice as often as the word “perhaps.”
他们发现，美式英语使用者使用maybe的频率是perhaps的两倍多。
The Corpus contains over one billion words collected from American print, video, and audio media.
该语料库包含了从美国印刷物、视频和音频媒体收集的超过10亿个单词。
Here is an example of the use of “maybe:”
这里有一个maybe的使用示例：
Are you going to the beach this weekend?
你这个周末要去海滩吗？
Maybe—but I need to check the weather first.
也许吧，但我需要先查看一下天气。
In this situation, if a speaker used the word “perhaps” instead of “maybe,” it might sound too formal, or serious, in American English.
在这个情境中，如果说话者使用perhaps而不是maybe，那么在美式英语中听起来可能会太过正式或太过严肃。
However, in written English, we often use the word “perhaps” instead of “maybe.”
然而在书面英语中，我们经常使用perhaps而不是maybe。
In writing, we can use commas to place the word “perhaps” between phrases or clauses in a sentence.
在写作中，我们可以使用逗号将perhaps放在句子中的短语或从句之间。
Consider this example:
看看这个例子：
It is easy, perhaps, to train a young dog to obey its owner. But training an older dog might not be so easy.
训练一只小狗服从主人，也许，是容易的。但是训练一只年龄大的狗可能不那么容易。
Note 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.
请注意，如果我们在这个例句中用maybe代替perhaps，那么对于母语人士来说，这个句子可能不是很规范。
Sometimes a writer will choose to use the word “maybe” instead of “perhaps” to communicate a particular feeling.
有时候，写作者会选择使用maybe而不是perhaps，来传达一种特定的感觉。
Consider the following example:
请看这个示例：
Government officials say the new trade deal will help the economies of both countries. Maybe. Such predictions have often been wrong in the past.
政府官员表示，新的贸易协议将有助于两国经济的发展。也许吧。这种预测在过去常常是错误的。
Here, by using the word “maybe,” the writer communicates more strongly a feeling that the government officials might be wrong.
在这里，通过使用maybe这个词，写作者更强烈地传达了一种感觉，即政府官员可能是错的。
Finally, be careful not to confuse the adverb “maybe” with the verb phrase “may be.”
最后，要小心不要把副词maybe（也许）和动词短语may be（可能是）混淆。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是本期《名师答疑》。
I’m Andrew Smith.
我是安德鲁·史密斯。
