Earlier today, the Vice President of your division at work seemed to be really angry about something. Now you're telling a coworker about it. You say:
She was yelling at us and barking out orders.
You're going on a trip with a group of friends. You're all riding in your friend's car. He's trying to put all the suitcases in the trunk, but yours isn't fitting. You think it might be possible to get them all in if they're all packed in the right way. You suggest:
Maybe if we rearrange some of this stuff...?
When you're looking for solutions to a problem, you can introduce different ideas that you have with "Maybe if...". For example, if someone is looking for a way to sell her old computer, you can suggest:
Well, maybe if you put it on Craigslist, someone might buy it.
In the example at top, the sentence doesn't include what the conclusion would be. Usually "if" sentences include the conclusion, but if the speaker and the listeners all know what the conclusion is, you can leave it off. In the original example, the conclusion is:
Maybe if we rearrange some of this stuff, we can fit all of the suitcases in the trunk.
But because everyone knows that this is what they're trying to do, it's not necessary to say it in the sentence.
To "rearrange" things means to change their order or position:
Did you rearrange the furniture in here?
I rearranged my schedule so that I could sleep in until 9:00 every morning.
You can also use the specific words "reorder" and "reposition". but "rearrange" can mean both of those.
"Stuff" can mean almost any physical items or material. It's similar to the word "things", but "things" are countable and "stuff" is not. So "stuff" is better to use when you're talking about a group of things that are different from each other - different sizes, shapes, etc.
"Stuff" is especially used to refer to things that you buy or own:
There's a good chance that you'll end up buying a lot of stuff while you're there.
Excuse me. Would you mind watching over my stuff for me for just a minute?
You're working on a group project for school. You're trying to work, but one of the group members (who you know well) is just making jokes and chatting instead of working. You say to him:
Can you just stop it please?
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