Maybe vs Probably? There is a lot of confusion [closed]

Solution 1:

On this topic, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language makes the following distinction (p769):

Probably explicitly allows for the possibility that the proposition is not true, but rates the chances of its being true as greater than even.

Maybe, perhaps, possibly, indicate that the proposition is not known to be false, with the chances of its being true falling in the range from slight to more or less fifty-fifty.

Solution 2:

So far as the semantics is concerned maybe, indeed, includes any probability greater than zero; it thus includes in its meaning the relatively higher probabilities, that are covered by the meaning of probably. However, as a matter of pragmatics, one is unlikely to use maybe if one knows that whatever we are talking about is probable; the use of maybe thus pragmatically implicates, even though it does not logically imply, that, so far as the speaker knows, the probability is relatively low. If something is, in fact, probable, then saying that it is probable is more informative, and so more helpful to one's interlocutor, than saying that maybe it will happen. People who communicate cooperatively normally don't use a broader term when a narrower, more informative one could be used without any additional effort.

If one is keen to understand such matters better, one may wish to spend some time studying the work of Paul Grice.