来源/新东方英语（ID：NOE_XDFYY）
What happens if you want to stay on the fence and say ‘maybe’? Don’t worry; we’ve got your back.
Pronunciation: /ˌp(ə)rədˈvɛntʃə/
Archaic or humorous now, peradventure sounds unusually adventurous, but actually comes from the French per aventure, meaning ‘by chance’, on the same model as perchance.
e.g. I will keep my ears open for their Spanish—peradventure I shall hear something worth my trouble.
Pronunciation: /pəˈhaps/
…and, indeed, the much more common perhaps. This everyday word has stuck around after the disappearance of its etymon hap, which meant ‘good fortune, good luck’ or ‘the chance or fortune that falls to a person’. Hap also survives in mishap and happen, and…
e.g. perhaps you would even consider a little vacation in France.
Pronunciation: /meɪˈhap/
…mayhap! This term is also listed as archaic in OxfordDictionaries.com, but you may well come across it in humorous contexts. Our New Monitor Corpus currently lists 112 examples of mayhap and 160 of mayhaps in the past few years, compared (say) to only 46 of peradventure, so it’s clearly not faded away completely yet. It’s not in the same league asperhaps, at 975,735 examples, though.
e.g. mayhap the loss of the match meant a great deal to both of them.
Pronunciation: /ˈlʌɪtli/
An obsolete meaning of the common word lightly was ‘as may easily happen; probably, perhaps’, as in ‘There happens lightly some ugly little contrary accident’ (1672).
If you want to dance around(推脱，回避事实) something, the phrase it is possible that is a great way to offer some misdirection.
If you don’t want to commit yourself immediately, you might opt for weather permitting or variants on this pattern. While this can be simply literal – plans may change depending on the weather – it has also taken on a transferred, broader use.
e.g. The game starts at 11 o’clock, weather permitting.
Like weather permitting, the phrase depending on circumstances is a nice way to evade(回避) commitment.
