Q. I’m new at this and want to learn all I can. Should there be a comma after Perhaps in the following sentence? “Perhaps I would never have had the opportunity for an education.”
A. A comma has the power to make readers pause, so first try reading the sentence out loud to see whether a pause would be problematic. CMOS 6.31 says that short adverbial introductory phrases are normally fine without a comma, and that seems to be the case in your sentence. Anytime you decide you do want a pause, consider whether you actually need something stronger than a comma, such as a period or dash.