Ought vs Maybe - What's the difference?
ought | maybe |
(obsolete) (owe)
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke VII:
*, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.182:
(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.
(auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence.
(auxiliary) Indicating desirability.
(auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability.
* , chapter=3
, title= anything
* Bishop Joseph Hall
at all, to any degree.
A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
* {{quote-book, year=1996, title=The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense, author=Mortimer Jerome Adler
, passage=There are value judgments that are not reducible to observable matters of fact, and there are oughts that cannot be construed as hypothetical and, therefore, cannot be converted into statements of fact.
* {{quote-book, year=2004, title=Truth Matters: Essays in Honor of Jacques Maritain, author=Jacques Maritain, John G. Trapani
, passage=Is there a fallacy involved in deriving an ought from a set of exclusively factual or descriptive premises?
(as a pro-sentence ) perhaps that is true (expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement)
Possible; uncertain.
(informal) Something that is possibly true.
(informal) An answer that shows neither agreement nor disagreement.
(informal) A future event that may or may not happen.
As adverbs the difference between ought and maybe
is that ought is at all, to any degree while maybe is .As nouns the difference between ought and maybe
is that ought is a statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case or ought can be cipher, zero, nought while maybe is (informal) something that is possibly true.As a verb ought
is (obsolete) (owe) or ought can be (auxiliary) indicating duty or obligation.As a pronoun ought
is anything .As an adjective maybe is
possible; uncertain.ought
English
Etymology 1
(etyl)Verb
(head)- There was a certayne lender, which had two detters, the one ought five hondred pence, and the other fifty.
- witnesse Aristippus , who being urged with the affection he ought his children, as proceeding from his loynes, began to spit.
Verb
(head)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
Usage notes
* Ought'' is an auxiliary verb; it takes a following verb as its complement. This verb may appear either as a full infinitive (such as "to go") or a bare infinitive (such as simple "go"), depending on region and speaker; the same range of meanings is possible in either case. Additionally, it's possible for ''ought not to take any complement, in which case a verb complement is implied, as in, "You really ought to [do so]." * The negative of ought'' is either ''ought not (to)'' or ''oughtn't (to)Synonyms
* should (In all senses)See also
* ought to *Pronoun
(English Pronouns)- Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoicings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul?
Adverb
(-)See also
* aught * naught * noughtNoun
(en noun)citation
citation
References
* *Etymology 2
Statistics
*maybe
English
(wikipedia maybe)Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete) * (l) (dialectal)Adverb
(-)Usage notes
* Do not confuse maybe' with ' may be : "Maybe that's true", but "That may be true"Synonyms
* (perhaps) mayhaps, peradventure, perhaps, possibly * (as a pro-sentence) could be, mayhaps, might be, perhaps, possibly, that’s possibleDerived terms
* and I don't mean maybeAdjective
(en adjective)- Then add those may-be years thou hast to live ? Dryden.
Noun
(en noun)- The results of the poll were inconclusive. We got two yeses, three nos, and four maybes.
- About your raise: it's a big maybe .