Kilo Lingo

(yě xǔ) - perhaps, maybe, possibly in Mandarin

Traditional: 也许

Line drawing of 也许
Coloured illustration of 也许
HSK 3
#193 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

perhaps, maybe, possibly

Word origin

A compound of 也 (yě, 'also') and 许 (xǔ, 'to permit, perhaps'), giving 'perhaps'. 许 is a phono-semantic compound of 讠(speech radical) with 午 (wǔ) as the phonetic.

Origin
compound
Root
也 (yě) + 许 (xǔ, 'perhaps'; 讠speech + 午 wǔ phonetic)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 也

Stroke order for 许

Examples

Maybe he is not coming.

Perhaps this is true.

Maybe you are right.

Perhaps he is not coming today.

He perhaps does not know about this at all.

也许 (yě xǔ) means perhaps, maybe, possibly. It is used as a adverb in everyday Mandarin speech.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 4.