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Maybe I will.

Is allowed.

Probably I will.

Is not-so allowed.

All I know is that they are both adverbs.

What is special about the word "maybe" that allows English speakers to use it in different ways to how we use "possibly" and "probably"?

Why is:

It's probably the best I've heard

so much more likely to be said (and why does it sound more correct) than:

It's maybe the best I've heard

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    Maybe (it may be) that maybe carries some flavor of its source in the two separate words. In your last example, It's maybe, could be replaced by It may be, giving an expression common at the beginning of a sentence. (I don't agree that Probably I will. is impossible, though it's less likely than I probably will.)
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Commented Nov 19, 2021 at 23:39
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    What's wrong with starting a sentence with probably?
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 3:54
  • @nnnnnn probably it's uncommon so it sounds weird (incorrect/like a second language speaker) to me
    – user163011
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 10:54
  • Adverb distribution is flexible but notoriously idiosyncratic. 'Maybe' being not as formal as 'perhaps' and certainly 'possibly', one might expect a rather freer distribution.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 12:38
  • “Perhaps I will”: no one objects. “Lord willing, I will,” “Fortunately, I will”: People might insist on the comma, but I think everyone is happier with the adverb(ials) either at the front or the back, not between “I” and “will.” “I probably will”: although, as noted, you could put the adverb at the front or back (especially set off with a comma), it’s happiest in the middle. I don’t think there’s any commonality that we can point to among the words that are typically given one position or other.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 13:25

2 Answers 2

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The OED gives maybe as a adverb, noun and adjective. It is most likely to occur at the beginning of a sentence as an adverb.

The etymology is given as

Etymology: Shortened < it may be < it pron. + may v.1 + be v. and can also occur with a subordinate clause, and as a noun.

Maybe was uncommon in English before the mid-19th century when it was considered poetic or dialect. Its origins can be seen in the hyphenated form.

1825 J. Jennings "Observations on the Dialects of West England". May-be, mâ-be, perhaps; for which one of these words is almost invariably used.

1829 J. Hunter "Hallamshire Glossary". May-be. This is at least as good as the hybrid word perhaps, by which it has been supplanted.

As an adverb at the beginning of a sentence - "Maybe I will visit her tomorrow" - it is almost always a free modifier, i.e. it modifies the whole of [what appears to be] the main clause.

As far as

Probably I will. Is not-so allowed.

is concerned. I cannot put it better than Jack O'Flaherty above:

(I don't agree that Probably I will. is impossible, though it's less likely than I probably will.)

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From Merriam-Webster:

sentence adverb (grammar)
an adverb that limits or describes the meaning of an entire statement rather than just a single word or phrase
"Similarly" and "hopefully" often function as sentence adverbs.

I think it's often useful to refer to the usage as whole sentence adverb to emphasize that aspect. Because the adverb applies to the entire containing sentence, it's often just a stylistic choice whether to put it before or after the utterance it modifies. It could also occur within the utterance, but that would often leave more scope for alternative syntactic breakdown / terminology.

I just searched Google Books for the sequence "functions as a sentence adverb" to find some more "typical" examples. Specific examples from that search include sadly, clearly, happily, importantly, but obviously OP's maybe, probably, possibly are all of the same ilk in this respect.

EDIT: I see no real significance to the fact that we're more likely to say...

Maybe that's a good idea / That's probably a good idea
rather than
Probably that's a good idea / That's maybe a good idea.

...where all four versions do occur, are perfectly valid, and mean the same. It's just that once a given construction has started to become "favoured" (perhaps by mere chance), it tends to become increasingly "idiomatically established".

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  • Since maybe, probably, and possibly are all sentence adverbs this can't be the correct term to separate maybe from the other two?
    – user163011
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 13:55
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    The dividing line between a "standard, verb-specific" adverb and a "sentence adverb" isn't always clear-cut. Note that it's meaningless to attempt to differentiate maybe from possibly / probably on the grounds of whether they're "verb-specific" or "sentence-wide", because each individual usage must be analysed in context (a "part of speech" normally only applies to a term as used in a specific context, not to the term itself in isolation).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 14:00
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    Well, nobody would say "Probably", with all syllables and whistles, at the beginning of a sentence. The normal way to pronounce that is "Probly", with less hubbub.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 18:10
  • @JohnLawler: Prolly not! But I have to admit it's only when I really stop to think about it that I realise I rarely enunciate even that /b/ in the spoken version of what I just wrote there. Until a few minutes ago I thought my use of prolly there was primarily just an affectation intended to save me a couple of keystrokes in SMS text messages. My "inner voice" would have assured me I was making at least some effort to pronounce the word as it's written, but now I have to admit that actually I usually don't bother to articulate any more than "just enough to be understood"!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 18:29
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    ... and neither does anybody else. Once you realize that, a lot of details about how and why language changes become clearer.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 1:26

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