2

Do they mean the same? Is one more correct/natural than the other?

Example sentence:

Did he have missed calls from Mary? He should probably not check/probably shouldn't check.

I tried searching trends in Google Ngrams, but I couldn't get any results.

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    You got no results because you used too many words. The search works better if you leave out "check."
    – Jeffrey Carney
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 14:42
  • 2
    He probably shouldn't go out tonight. versus He should probably not go out tonight. mean the same exact thing. Both are grammatical. But the contraction would probably not be written in a formal document.
    – Lambie
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 15:00
  • 1
    The nGram viewer conflates "should not" with "shouldn't". "Probably shouldn't" is the most natural. "Probably should not" is less natural.
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 17:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Both are fine. "probably shouldn't" is more frequent.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .