One French Word - Episode 10: Peut-être
Your friend asks if you want to come along tonight, and you are not sure. French has one word for that answer: peut-être.
0:00 / 1:40
One French Word - Episode 10: Peut-être
Today's word is peut-être, the French adverb for maybe or perhaps. 1
Pronounce peut-être roughly like puh-TETR, in two parts: puh, then tetr, with the last r made at the back of the throat. Wiktionary gives the French pronunciation as
/pø.tɛtʁ/. 2It stands alone as an answer, or sits inside a sentence after the verb. 3
- Tu viens ce soir ? Peut-être. - Are you coming tonight? Maybe.
- Il est peut-être en retard. - He might be late.
- Peut-être qu'il est en retard. - Maybe he is late.
When peut-être opens a sentence and a full clause follows, French adds que: peut-être qu'il est en retard. Without que, the verb and the subject swap, as in peut-être est-il en retard, which sounds formal. 3
Peut-être also answers a yes-or-no question: peut-être que oui, maybe so, and peut-être que non, maybe not. 3
References
- 1Collins Dictionary - French-English: peut-être
collinsdictionary.com
- 2Wiktionary - peut-être
en.wiktionary.org
- 3Lawless French - Peut-être
lawlessfrench.com
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.