maybe、perhaps、possibly与probably这些副词均有“或许、大概”之意。
maybe : 普通用词，美国英语多用。指某事也许如此，含不能确定意味。
- Maybe they’ll come tomorrow.
或许他们明天会来。 - Maybe you were right after all.
或许还是你对。
perhaps : 普通用词，多用于英国，与maybe同义。
- He hasn’t written to me recently – perhaps he’s lost my address.
他最近没给我写信——也许他把我的地址弄丢了。 - Perhaps the most important question has not been asked.
或许还没有人提出最重要的问题。 - We plan to travel to Europe – to Spain or Italy perhaps.
我们打算去欧洲旅行，也许去西班牙或意大利。
possibly : 指客观上潜存着发生某种变化的可能。
- He may possibly decide not to come, in which case there’s no problem.
他可能会决定不来，这样就没问题了。 - “Will he come?” “Possibly not.”
“他会来吗？”“恐怕不会。”
probably : 一般指根据逻辑推理，估计有发生的可能，把握性较大，语气比possibly强。
- I’ll probably be home by midnight.
我很可能半夜到家。 - I’m probably going – it depends on the weather.
我很可能会去——这要看天气怎么样。 - He probably didn’t even notice.
他很可能都没有觉察到。
#词汇辨析