this is an all ears english podcast episode 1857. this may be the best grammar episode
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when should you use maybe and when should you use may be in today's episode we break down
the key differences between the adverb and the verb phrase listen in for our top tips
hey lindsay how's it going hey it's going well aubry i have a question for you oh yeah all right
you doing anything fun this weekend maybe i may be going out on the lake with my dad he has a boat
and he takes us out with this giant tube called big mabel we can fit five kids on it and he just
pulls them behind the boat it's the most fun oh my gosh i heard a lot of mabel's maybes
maybe i'm really confused about all these maples and babies here right
big mabel that brought it even more yes we're talking about maybe versus the verb may be
we got a great question about this right lindsay yeah and by the way the weekend sounds fun that's
so exciting i love that kind of thing summertime going out there you know just getting out in
nature it's the best it is the best yeah but before we get into this maybe this good question
we have from our listeners um guys i want to say thank you to our listeners who have reviewed us
in the google play store right all of you guys who are using our android app you know we have an
android app and you've reviewed us so thank you to mohamed isaido herman perez i can't read that name
khaled rabi moen samani and thank you to mohammed andari guys leave us a review wherever you listen
a rating in a review whether it's in the app ios or android or google podcast or apple podcast or
spotify leave that rating and review we want to see what you think about the show yes awesome i
love the reviews okay we have this great question so i'm going to go ahead and read this ready
yes let's do it all right this is from menash from india i recently read maybe somewhere without
a space and i knew previously that may be are two words with a space i looked it up in google
and found that maybe is an adverb which has the same meaning as probably and maybe two words is
a verb phrase i want to hear from you about the difference between these two and where should
we use them also how should we pronounce each one of them thanks in advance thank you minaj
for the question yeah minaj great question and so how so key so good for our listeners
at their level right at this intermediate to advanced level it's fantastic yes for sure right
and she's right with her what she found online but i think it is so valuable to hear the explanation
and some you know example sentences in a role play it's so helpful to really get a deep dive into it
well just because these words are so common aubrey we use them all the time maybe probably they're
everywhere okay so let's get into it now so so yeah first of all maybe one word has two different
me two different forms right first of all is an adverb like she said possibly or perhaps and then
also as a noun so let's give some examples of both first as an adverb okay so here we go so as an
adverb guys maybe we should get a puppy that was my thinking at the beginning of the pandemic it
was the right choice but it was you know i think puppies when they're raised in the in the pandemic
they can be a little weird i will say that much maybe this wasn't the best choice yeah in some
ways i think that's still yeah but no i love my dog keeper she's the best he's the best all right
what's the next example operator so maybe that's maybe the worst joke i've ever heard i love maybe
this way and i wouldn't necessarily use possibly or perhaps right and listen to the pronunciation
there right it's kind of a funny way of saying oh that was a bad joke that's a dad joke like that's
maybe the worst joke i've ever heard just a unique pronunciation you kind of uh elongated it a little
bit that's maybe the worst joke i've ever heard right kind of fun and then and then i heard one
i was just watching the movie tombstone have you ever seen that one about wyatt earp yeah yeah
yeah i i've seen an old west movie it's so good i really like it it was really well done wyatt earp
and doc holiday and as i'm preparing this episode he says maybe you better swear me in this is right
before the shootout at the okay corral he asks his brother to swear him in as like an official
oh okay oh yeah to like deputize him right oh make him a cop or something okay got it
got it got it yep they're about to have this shootout and he's like for this to be legal
i need to be an official lawman okay official the wild west the days of the wild west right
very interesting but for all three of those it has the same meaning as perhaps or possibly and
it would be written as one word being used as an adverb yes i love it that is that's how we use
it as an adverb and then as a noun here's some examples right no ifs buts or maybes so there's
just a noun it's just another object in that sentence yeah this is a really fun expression
that we'll use you're wanting to say this is going to happen you'll say no ifs butts or maybes the
one i actually hear more often is no if ifs ands or buts no ifs ands or bots so you can do both
okay yeah absolutely you can pick and choose right that's the chunk that i'm more used to
this one no if spots are maybes i'm not asked as i don't know it as much yeah might be geographic
this is the one we said growing up and i say it to my kids now because i don't want them to say
but maybe if we did a but what if this is the day right so we'll cut it off we'll head it off with
no ifs butts or babies don't tend to do that right maybe this but what if this but can we
do this right yeah exactly and the other way we use it as a noun is the expression i'm a maybe
so if someone asks you to commit to something if they're asking if you'll be at the party
you can say i'm a maybe meaning i might be there but it's not for sure this one's so common and i
just used this this morning when i was sharing with someone that i work with but someone else
was a maybe to attend an event in august he's a maybe right can i let you know later right so yeah
really really common in the business world and just in life in general guys exactly right and
so the next is this verb phrase may be which so b is our verb and then may is a modal like might
could it's indicating how much that verb might be right so it means might be it's used to indicate
that something's uncertain but has a chance of being true yeah perfect perfect and this is what
you used in the beginning well you used both in the beginning in our initial conversation right
you said maybe i may be going to the lake exactly right so i first used that adverb and then
with the verb i may be going to the lake out on my dad's boat yes okay so here are some examples
in this way we use it guys they may be asked to help if we're short-handed so saying the same
thing as they might be right exactly and we may be out of town next week or next weekend yeah we
might be out of town next weekend yeah both would work it's just letting you know it's not for sure
it might happen okay i love it all right what else aubrey what else do we need to know here
well there's this really fun expression we want to teach you guys that natives use all the time where
they'll say i may be this but at least i'm not that right i hear this all the time i might say
i may be bad at this game but at least i'm having fun and that's a good attitude to have right yes
that's right yeah because most do you hear this a lot lindsey yeah i do and this is a yeah for
sure and it's good because it signifies a sense of optimism right if you can say this i may be
this but at least i'm this right you you uh convey the positive side of yourself exactly right you're
acknowledging like okay maybe i'm not great at that or maybe i'm feeling this way but at least
yeah and share something positive at least we can do that i feel like this is something my dad used
to stay used to say when he would cook us dinner and he wouldn't do a very good job with it like
he would say this like maybe i'm a bad cook but at least i have fun right it's totally something my
dad would say so yes you're gonna start hearing it now all the time guys i feel like it's very common
there's a really funny famous quote terry bradshaw who was a football player and now he's like a
sports commentator and he said i may be dumb but at least i'm not stupid or something like that but
i'm not stupid and he get that people were poking fun at him because those mean the same thing
interesting interesting but yeah they do mean the same thing right don't they
yes yes you kind of use this this expression incorrectly because you're supposed to say like
i may be this but at least i'm not something else something different something positive
hilarious that would be a great episode idea we could do another episode on just really
really silly quotes that people have made over the years that just maybe we take the names off for
just for the sake of the people but just we can teach our listeners those and why they're so silly
the way you have said so find a great episode all right okay aubry let's break into a role play to
show our listeners okay so in this role play you and i are on vacation and we're discussing
what they what we can squeeze in in the last days before our flight home okay here we go all right
maybe we'll have time to see a museum tomorrow morning we may be able to hit one in the morning
if we get there right when it opens our flight leaves at three right maybe we won't have time
it may be cutting it close maybe we should just do brunch instead somewhere fun
oh yeah i may be a big breakfast person but i also love brunch nice all right good good
i mean one thing that's important to show our listeners here is you have to obviously guys
take that pause you have to add the pause right there's a very different pronunciation between
maybe we'll have time versus we may be able to hit one in the morning but it's so subtle
very small it's true i agree it's very minimal interesting okay so let's go through this so
first i said maybe we'll have time to see a museum tomorrow morning and this construction
is interesting where i'm asking a question but i'm starting with maybe instead of the subject
i do that all the time i do that all the time yeah that's really common um and then i said we
may be able to hit one in the morning if we get there right when it opens yup and then i said
our flight leaves at three maybe we won't have time and then i said it may be cutting it close
yep and this is that verb where it's two separate words if you guys have the transcripts in the app
you're seeing this all because this is one where it's tricky if you can't see
when it's separate you might have a hard time figuring out which one we're using when right
that's the verb phrase it may be cutting it close yeah this would be i agree with you aubry we need
the transcripts for this i mean the app is a great way to get those or you guys can also get those
delivered to you by email we still offer that that option if you go to aldersenglish.com subscribe
uh and then where are we here aubrey i said maybe we should just do brunch instead
yeah somewhere fun and they said oh yeah i may be a big breakfast person but i also love
brunch that's that fun expression right i probably already know that you love
breakfast yes maybe you like eating breakfast really early but you're saying okay maybe a big
breakfast person but i also love a good brunch yeah yeah yeah that's sometimes true sometimes
true mostly i'm not a brunch person but what about you are you oh my gosh i love brunch yes
i love a mimosa i don't know about you on mother's day we went to this brunch place and i got it
was a blueberry orange mimosa and it tasted like heaven it was so delicious i've always been more
of a bloody mary person than mimosas for some reason mimosas just like are too sweet for me
just the orange juice i like it sweet i love it sweet but my husband would agree with you he loves
the bloody mary there's this place in arizona called hash kitchen that has a big bloody mary bar
where it's all this like pickled stuff and meat and so you can put it in an ends up giant like
a bouquet of flowers i know once when i was in nashville we went to brunch somewhere and we got
bloodies we call we call them bloodies right bloody mary's bloodies and um they just made
the biggest bloody mary's where they would have your drink and then coming off of it as you said
there's a stick and it's just loaded up with stuff i think there was like three strips of bacon on it
and god knows what else was that cauliflowers and olives and exactly and it ends up being bigger
than the drink itself yeah that's on top of it so ridiculous so funny do you eat the stuff coming
out of your bloody mary yeah i've never personally gotten a bloody mary that big like that i just saw
those being handed out but like um but i would i would i would i would for sure eat all that i
love pickled vegetables oh so too and they taste so good with bloody mary yes good stuff guys so go
out and enjoy a nice brunch if you're in the mood for it and what's the takeaway for today's episode
yeah this is tricky grammar right just this very subtle difference between maybe
and then maybe two words today's breakdown i think really helps you understand why right what yeah
maybe how it is as an adverb and a noun and then maybe the verb phrase so that you can understand
it and be comfortable using it and understand what people are saying when you hear both yeah i mean
this is just one of those nitty-gritty things you guys need to know about english because it's so
so common okay so when you hear natives using these again imagine in your head which one did
they say make sure you know and it's obviously especially important too with writing we need to
make sure we're making that split exactly right to make sure you're writing the correct version
because though they sound the same really they are written separately there's a space
for the verb space you need that space if you're going to be using that second version of it so
good this has been great aubry guys hit follow in the podcast so you don't miss a single episode
good stuff aubry i'll talk to you very soon bye-bye bye thanks for listening to all ears
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