Considering the volume of queries in search engines, many doubt whether certain words are written together or separately. This is what is called segmentation problems. They are failures in the process of identifying the limits of words, syllables or phonemes. The question between maybe or maybe is a clear example. Let's see how to spell it correctly.
For those who do not believe that such an easy query to answer really exists, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) recognized a decade ago that "perhaps" is one of the most searched terms in its digital dictionary that does not correspond to any DRAE entry. Specifically, it was consulted 11,936 times in 2013. That figure may be much higher today, taking into account that at that time the average monthly number of visits to the DRAE was 40 million, traffic that is higher today.
As has been said, those 11,936 queries did not obtain any results, since the term "perhaps" is not included in the dictionary and therefore writing it in a single word is incorrect.
It is always spelled "perhaps". It is an adverbial phrase with the meaning of "quizá" or "perhaps", composed of the preposition "a", the unstressed personal pronoun "lo" and the adverb "better". It is used to express a possibility, a hypothesis or a doubt.
Those who mistakenly opt for the formula "maybe" surely do so because they write as the words are pronounced, living far from the basic rules of spelling and grammar. It is much less probable that they do so thinking of the compositional element "allo-", which, together with a second element, indicates a variation in the meaning of the latter (alopathy, alopecia, allotropia).
It must also be taken into account that there are cases of expressions that can be used both together and separately: immediately / immediately; hurry / in a hurry; likewise / likewise; opposite / in front; cheeky / tough face, high seas / high seas... The list is extensive, although in all the examples indicated, the use of a single word is preferable and majority. However, this does not occur with the adverbial locution "to the best"; We insist, maybe it doesn't exist.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
