Perhaps in Different Languages
Discover 'Perhaps' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Perhaps
Afrikaans miskien | ||
Albanian mbase | ||
Amharic ምናልባት | ||
Arabic ربما | ||
Armenian երեւի | ||
Assamese বোধকৰোঁ | ||
Aymara inasa | ||
Azerbaijani bəlkə də | ||
Bambara lala | ||
Basque agian | ||
Belarusian магчыма | ||
Bengali সম্ভবত | ||
Bhojpuri शायद | ||
Bosnian mozda | ||
Bulgarian може би | ||
Catalan potser | ||
Cebuano tingali | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 也许 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 也許 | ||
Corsican forse | ||
Croatian možda | ||
Czech možná | ||
Danish måske | ||
Dhivehi ފަހަރެއްގަ | ||
Dogri कुश्वै | ||
Dutch misschien | ||
English perhaps | ||
Esperanto eble | ||
Estonian võib-olla | ||
Ewe ɖewòhĩ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) marahil | ||
Finnish kenties | ||
French peut-être | ||
Frisian faaks | ||
Galician quizais | ||
Georgian ალბათ | ||
German vielleicht | ||
Greek ίσως | ||
Guarani ikatu | ||
Gujarati કદાચ | ||
Haitian Creole petèt | ||
Hausa watakila | ||
Hawaiian paha paha | ||
Hebrew אוּלַי | ||
Hindi शायद | ||
Hmong kab tias | ||
Hungarian talán | ||
Icelandic kannski | ||
Igbo ikekwe | ||
Ilocano nalabit | ||
Indonesian mungkin | ||
Irish b’fhéidir | ||
Italian forse | ||
Japanese おそらく | ||
Javanese mbok menawi | ||
Kannada ಬಹುಶಃ | ||
Kazakh мүмкін | ||
Khmer ប្រហែលជា | ||
Kinyarwanda ahari | ||
Konkani कदाचीत | ||
Korean 혹시 | ||
Krio sɔntɛm | ||
Kurdish belkî | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) بێگومان | ||
Kyrgyz балким | ||
Lao ບາງທີ | ||
Latin fortasse | ||
Latvian varbūt | ||
Lingala mbala mosusu | ||
Lithuanian galbūt | ||
Luganda kyandiba | ||
Luxembourgish vläicht | ||
Macedonian можеби | ||
Maithili शायद | ||
Malagasy angamba | ||
Malay mungkin | ||
Malayalam ഒരുപക്ഷേ | ||
Maltese forsi | ||
Maori pea | ||
Marathi कदाचित | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯑꯣꯏꯔꯝꯕ ꯌꯥꯏ | ||
Mizo maithei | ||
Mongolian магадгүй | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဖြစ်ကောင်း | ||
Nepali हुनसक्छ | ||
Norwegian kanskje | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) mwina | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବୋଧହୁଏ | | ||
Oromo tarii | ||
Pashto شاید | ||
Persian شاید | ||
Polish być może | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) possivelmente | ||
Punjabi ਸ਼ਾਇਦ | ||
Quechua ichapas | ||
Romanian poate | ||
Russian возможно | ||
Samoan masalo | ||
Sanskrit कदाचिद् | ||
Scots Gaelic is dòcha | ||
Sepedi mohlomongwe | ||
Serbian можда | ||
Sesotho mohlomong | ||
Shona pamwe | ||
Sindhi شايد | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) සමහර විට | ||
Slovak možno | ||
Slovenian morda | ||
Somali laga yaabee | ||
Spanish quizás | ||
Sundanese meureun | ||
Swahili labda | ||
Swedish kanske | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) marahil | ||
Tajik шояд | ||
Tamil ஒருவேளை | ||
Tatar бәлки | ||
Telugu బహుశా | ||
Thai บางที | ||
Tigrinya ምናልባት | ||
Tsonga kumbexana | ||
Turkish belki | ||
Turkmen belki | ||
Twi (Akan) gyama | ||
Ukrainian можливо | ||
Urdu شاید | ||
Uyghur بەلكىم | ||
Uzbek balki | ||
Vietnamese có lẽ | ||
Welsh efallai | ||
Xhosa mhlawumbi | ||
Yiddish טאָמער | ||
Yoruba boya | ||
Zulu mhlawumbe |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Afrikaans word "miskien" (meaning "perhaps") is derived from the Dutch phrase "het is misschien" meaning "it is possible" |
| Albanian | Albanian "mbase" likely derives from Greek "ambathos," meaning "depth," with the sense "perhaps" arising as a euphemistic way to express uncertainty without stating it directly. |
| Amharic | The word "ምናልባት" (perhaps) is derived from the root word "ምናል" (a guess). |
| Arabic | The Arabic word "ربما" (rabama) can also mean "maybe", "possibly", or "it is possible that". |
| Armenian | The word "երեւի" derives from the Proto-Armenian "*eraw-i" meaning "as it appears" or "as it seems." |
| Basque | There is no consensus on the relation between the Basque and the Romance terms, with some researchers suggesting a possible relation between agian and the Latin forsitan "perhaps." |
| Belarusian | "Магчыма" is a relative adverb in Belarusian derived from an old East Slavic word "могти", which meant "to manage", "to be able to". It later obtained a number of new meanings, the most important of which was "it is possible that". In modern Belarusian, "магчыма" usually means "it is possible that", "may be". |
| Bengali | The word 'সম্ভবত' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'संभाव्यते' (sambhāvyate), which means 'to be possible' or 'to be probable'. |
| Bosnian | The word "mozda" is of Persian origin and is also used in other Slavic languages, such as Serbian, Croatian, and Macedonian. |
| Bulgarian | The word "може би" (moje bi) is derived from the Old Bulgarian "могъщи" (mogъšti), meaning "able" or "possible". |
| Catalan | It stems from the Latin "possibile est", and can mean "possibly" or "maybe" in addition to "perhaps". |
| Cebuano | The word "tingali" is also used to express a sense of uncertainty or hesitation. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | "也许" (yěxǔ) was originally made up of "也" (yě "also") and "许" (xǔ "perhaps, allow"). |
| Chinese (Traditional) | "也許"最早出現在西漢時期，由"疑"字演變而來，表示「猶豫不決」或「可能」之意。 |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "forse" can also mean "maybe" or "possibly". |
| Croatian | The word "možda" is derived from Old Slavic *možĭ, meaning "to be able". It is also used in Serbo-Croatian to mean "maybe" or "possibly". |
| Czech | The word "možná" can also mean "possible" or "it is possible" in Czech. |
| Danish | The word 'måske' has been in use since the 14th century. |
| Dutch | "Misschien" is derived from the Middle Dutch phrase "miet sijn", meaning "maybe" or "possibly." |
| Esperanto | Esperanto's "eble" evolved from "ebla," meaning "possibly" in a nearly obsolete Slavic language called Pomeranian. |
| Estonian | The word "võib-olla" is derived from the Estonian words "võib" (can) and "olla" (be) and literally means "can be". |
| Finnish | The word "kenties" in Finnish came from the Old Norse word "kannske" or "kannske", which also meant "perhaps". |
| French | The French word "peut-être" literally means "it can be". |
| Frisian | The word "faaks" in Frisian shares its origin with the Dutch word "waaks" (be on guard), but has taken on the meaning "perhaps" in Frisian. |
| Galician | "Quizais" derives from the Latin phrase "quid si" meaning "what if". |
| Georgian | The word "ალბათ" is derived from the Arabic word "البَتَّة" (al-batta), meaning "certainly not". |
| German | The word "vielleicht" is derived from the Middle High German "vil lihte," meaning "easily possible" or "very likely." |
| Greek | Ίσως is thought to derive from "εἰ δ' ἄρα" ("if, indeed"), which was shortened into "εἰ δ' ὡς" and finally, "ὡς". |
| Gujarati | "કદાચ" is also used to express a polite request, like "Will you perhaps give me some water?". |
| Haitian Creole | Petèt derives from the French phrase "peut-être", meaning "maybe" or "perhaps". |
| Hausa | The word "watakila" (perhaps) in Hausa shares the same root with the "wanki" (doubt) and "wata" (water). |
| Hawaiian | The word "paha paha" in Hawaiian also means "doubtful" or "uncertain." |
| Hebrew | The word "אוּלַי" comes from the Akkadian word "awilu" meaning "man" and is related to the Arabic word "wali" meaning "friend". |
| Hindi | The word "शायद" is derived from the Persian word "شاید" (shāyad), which means "possible" or "likely." |
| Hmong | Kab tias may also mean "maybe" or "possibly". |
| Hungarian | The word "talán" is derived from the Turkish word "talan" meaning "plunder" or "ravage", and has the alternate meaning of "by chance". |
| Icelandic | The word "kannski" is derived from the Old Norse word "kannskí", meaning "it is possible" or "it could be". |
| Igbo | The Igbo word 'ikekwe' originally referred to a state of uncertainty, or a feeling that something might happen. |
| Indonesian | The word "mungkin" is derived from the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word "*maŋkin" which means "to be possible" or "to be able to". |
| Irish | 'B’fhéidir' comes from 'féidir' ('possible') and the conditional prefix 'b(h)f-'. As with the prefix 'do-', the 'bh' is usually assimilated by mutation to 'f' when combined with a consonant. |
| Italian | "Forse" also means 'maybe, possibly, perchance' |
| Japanese | perhaps originates from the Old Japanese words おぼつかなし (obotsukanashi, “uncertain”) and おそし (oshi, “late”). |
| Javanese | The term "mbok menawi" is derived from the Middle Javanese phrase "mbok manawa," which literally means "if by chance." |
| Kannada | "ಬಹುಶಃ" (perhaps) can also mean "maybe", "possibly", or "it's likely." |
| Kazakh | The Kazakh word "мүмкін" ("perhaps") is derived from the root "мүм" ("possible") and the suffix "-кін" ("indicating possibility"). |
| Khmer | The Khmer word 'ប្រហែលជា' ('perhaps') is derived from the Sanskrit word 'prabhriti', which means 'from the beginning'. |
| Korean | The Korean word "혹시 (hok-shi)" can also mean "by chance" or "just in case". |
| Kurdish | The word 'belkî' has the same origin as the Arabic word 'balkiya' ('perchance'), both ultimately deriving from the Persian word 'ba-liki' ('by any chance'). |
| Kyrgyz | The word "балким" (perhaps) is derived from the verb "балктаmak", meaning "to weigh up", "to consider". |
| Latin | The word "fortasse" is derived from "fors" (chance) + "an" (if), and also means "by chance" or "possibly". |
| Latvian | The word "varbūt" is thought to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *werb- meaning "to turn, to bend" and is related to the Sanskrit वर (vara), meaning "wish, desire"} |
| Lithuanian | "Galbūt" is likely to be rooted in the same base as the Sanskrit and Latvian cognates meaning "appropriate; worthy to be". Its archaic meaning also includes "possibly" alongside various modal uses like "may-be" or "I presume". |
| Luxembourgish | "Vläicht" comes from the Old High German "wio lihht", meaning "as light", and also has the meaning of "probably" in Luxembourgish. |
| Macedonian | The word "можеби" can trace its roots back to the Old Church Slavonic "могъ", meaning "able" or "capable". |
| Malagasy | The word "angamba" in Malagasy can also be used to express hope or expectation. |
| Malay | Despite its current usage meaning "perhaps", "mungkin" originally meant "possible" in Malay. |
| Maltese | "Forsi" also means "maybe" or "possibly" in Maltese. |
| Maori | Derived from the word "pia", meaning "doubt" or "uncertainty." |
| Marathi | The word "कदाचित" can also mean "maybe" or "possibly" in Marathi. |
| Mongolian | The Mongolian word "магадгүй" is derived from the verbs "магад" (to guess) and "гүй" (to make or do), indicating a tentative or conjectural sense. |
| Nepali | The word "हुनसक्छ" is derived from the Sanskrit word "हुना" meaning "to be" and the suffix "-सक्छ" meaning "can", thus literally meaning "can be" or "possibly". |
| Norwegian | The word "kanskje" is thought to derive from the phrase "kan ikke si" meaning "cannot say". |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | Mwina originates from the word 'mwine,' meaning 'this one,' and is often used to express uncertainty or speculation. |
| Pashto | The word "شاید" in Pashto also means "possible" and can be used to express a hypothetical situation. |
| Persian | شاید is also used in Persian to mean “possibly” or “probably.” |
| Polish | The word 'być może' in Polish comes from the Proto-Slavic root *byti, meaning 'to be', and the modal particle *može, meaning 'possibly' or 'conditionally'. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "possivelmente" comes from the Latin "possibilis", meaning "possible". |
| Punjabi | The word "ਸ਼ਾਇਦ" can also mean "maybe" or "possibly" in Punjabi, depending on the context. |
| Romanian | The word "poate" is also used in Romanian to express "maybe" or "possibly". |
| Russian | The word "возможно" (perhaps) in Russian is derived from the word "мочь" (to be able), suggesting the idea of an action being within one's capacity or reach. |
| Samoan | The word masalo has been derived from the Proto-Polynesian word masalo meaning **maybe, uncertain** and is also related to the Samoan words masalo, mahalo, and mahalotia. |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "is dòcha" is derived from the Gaelic words "is" (meaning "it is") and "dòcha" (meaning "likely"). It can also mean "possibly" or "it may be". |
| Serbian | The word "можда" in Serbian is cognate with the Russian word "может", both of which derive from the Proto-Slavic word *možetъ, meaning "he is able". |
| Sesotho | The word "mohlomong" in Sesotho can also mean "maybe" or "it is possible". |
| Shona | The word "pamwe" is derived from the Proto-Bantu root "*pa-me," meaning "to go together." |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "شايد" can also mean "maybe" or "possibly" in English. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word "සමහර විට" literally means "at some point" in Sinhalese, implying a possible or uncertain occurrence. |
| Slovak | The Slovak word "možno" can also mean "possible" or "it is possible" |
| Slovenian | The Slovenian "morda" "perhaps" comes from the Proto-Slavic "morda", meaning "intention"} |
| Somali | "Laga yaabee'", like most Somali words for 'perhaps', originates in Arabic, specifically from 'la yahba, or 'Allah knows'. |
| Spanish | The word "quizás" is borrowed from Arabic, where the original word "qadhisha" means "fortune teller". |
| Sundanese | "Meureun" is also used as a noun referring to doubt or uncertainty. |
| Swahili | "Labda" is often used in tandem with "huenda" to provide greater emphasis, e.g., "huenda labda atakuja kesho" (perhaps he may come tomorrow). |
| Swedish | "Kanske" derives from the Old Swedish "kan ski"," 'can distinguish,' 'can tell,' with "kan" meaning 'can, able, skillful' and "ski" meaning 'separate, divide'. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word “marahil” also translates to the English words "maybe" and "possibly" which all contain the same idea of incertitude. |
| Tajik | The Tajik word "шояд" derives from the Persian "شاید" (šāyad), meaning "it is possible" or "it is likely." |
| Tamil | The word "ஒருவேளை" (oruvele) in Tamil can also mean "one time" or "in one instance". |
| Telugu | బహుశా is derived from the Sanskrit word 'bahuśaḥ' which means 'in many ways' or 'in many instances'. |
| Thai | In addition to meaning "perhaps," "บางที" also means "someday" or "in the future." |
| Turkish | Belki derives from “belügü” meaning “who knows?” in Old Turkic and “bilgü” meaning “knowledge” in Old Uyghur. |
| Ukrainian | The word “можливо” (“perhaps”) in Ukrainian is derived from the Proto-Slavic root “mogti,” meaning “to be able to,” and is related to the words “могти” (“to be able to”), “могущество” (“power”), and “возможность” (“opportunity”). |
| Urdu | شاید in Urdu is derived from the Persian word 'شاید', meaning 'possible' or 'probable'. |
| Uzbek | In Chagatai/Old Uzbek, "balki" meant "but", and in Old Turkish it meant "maybe" |
| Vietnamese | In Vietnamese, the word "có lẽ" can also mean "probably" or "most likely". |
| Welsh | The word "efallai" derives from the Middle Welsh "efallai" meaning "it is possible" or "it may be" |
| Xhosa | The word "mhlawumbi" is derived from the Xhosa word "mlawu," meaning "a shade" or "a shadow," and is used to express a degree of uncertainty or doubt. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "טאָמער" can also mean "if" and is related to the German "tömen", meaning "to guess". |
| Yoruba | The word "Boya" can also mean "indeed" or "for sure". |
| Zulu | The word 'mhlawumbe' is derived from the Proto-Bantu verb *luma-, meaning 'to guess'. |
| English | The word "perhaps" derives from the Old French "par haps" meaning "by chance". |