也许/恐怕/大概: hedging expressions
These three adverbs all express uncertainty but with different flavours:
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Nuance |
|------|--------|---------|--------|
| 也许 | yě xǔ | perhaps / maybe | neutral — speaker doesn't know |
| 恐怕 | kǒng pà | I'm afraid / I suspect | negative expectation — speaker is worried about outcome |
| 大概 | dà gài | probably / approximately | estimation — rough calculation or likelihood |
Position: before the subject OR before the predicate verb.
✅ 他还没来，也许路上堵车了。(neutral guess)
✅ 天色不好，恐怕要下雨了。(I'm afraid it'll rain — unwanted)
✅ 这个箱子大概有三十公斤。(approximately / my estimate)
Worked examples
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| 他今天没来，也许是生病了。 | Tā jīn tiān méi lái, yě xǔ shì shēng bìng le. | He didn't come today — perhaps he's sick. | 也许: neutral guess about an unknown cause |
| 天气预报说明天有大风，恐怕航班要延误了。 | Tiān qì yù bào shuō míng tiān yǒu dà fēng, kǒng pà háng bān yào yán wù le. | The forecast says strong winds tomorrow — I'm afraid the flights will be delayed. | 恐怕: speaker is worried about an unwanted outcome (delay) |
| 他做这道题大概只用了五分钟，真是太快了。 | Tā zuò zhè dào tí dà gài zhǐ yòng le wǔ fēn zhōng, zhēn shì tài kuài le. | He probably solved this problem in about five minutes — incredibly fast. | 大概: rough estimation of time, not an exact measurement |
What you need first
Every topic in GraphChinese names its own prerequisites, and these are the grammar points this one is built on. If a sentence here will not parse, one of them is why.
也许/恐怕/大概 is one topic of 829. GraphChinese teaches them in prerequisite order, so this pattern reaches you on the day everything it rests on is proven. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.
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