el rincón idiomático – Maybe far away…

… or maybe real nearby… Yeah, keep singing it.  “Annie” was a big hit when I was a kid and I still remember the lyrics to a lot of the songs… especially considering my little sister used to sing them all of the time, for better or for worse. My college girlfriend actually, was high school friend with the girl who played Annie in the film version of the broadway play and I remember going over to her house and hanging out when I was in college.  That was certainly strange… though, not surprisingly, she was relatively normal. In any case, sorry about that, I digress…

I was thinking about the word “maybe” or ” perhaps” and was remembering about how when I learned the language that I could never exactly tell which word I should use for it. There are a lot of different ways to express this word of possibility and, frankly, you’ll likely be understood by any of them but need to live in the country to really get used to hearing particular ones.  Not surprisingly, here in Argentina I’ve even heard used a couple of words/phrases that I didn’t think were used that much but, in practice here, are even more common than what I thought were their more common counterparts.  Let me explain:

1) A lo mejor – this is the one that I heard used more than any of them when I lived in Spain and the one that I probably still use more often than not when I want to convey the meaning of “maybe”. I can’t recall hearing it used all that much here in Buenos Aires.

2) Quizá(s) – This is the one I like the best because it sounds like, and is probably derived from, the Italian expression chissá (key – sa) which means “who knows?”, which carries the sentiment of “maybe”. I’ve heard it used here in Argentina from time to time. Of course, as an Italian teacher I like ANY link with Italian… even if it might just be speculation 🙂

3) Tal vez – I don’t hear this one all that much but I think it may be (no pun intended) the most popular one in many parts of Latin America. It seems to be the most common one in the Spanish textbooks in the US.

Watch the song video by Mexican singer Paulina Rubio “Tal Vez Quizás”

4) Puede ser – this, I think, is, by far, the one used more often than not to express this concept. It literally means “it can be” which, in itself, basically means “maybe”. You could also use it as a question to ask someone something. Vengo a tu casa para estudiar.  Puede ser?

5) Capaz – I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t this mean “capable” or “able”? Well, it does, as in the sentence no soy capaz de aprender un idioma. 😉 However, it can be used similar to “es posible” as in the sentence Capaz que vaya a la playa mañana. I know, sounds weird but it is what it is and it is used here for sure.

Hopefully you enjoyed this blog and will keep following it as I go.  Puede ser?

Prof Rabner