Comments on: Might, May, and Can

By: Chloe

Chloe — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 07:39:29 +0000

Both words are to express possibility, however, the context is very important. For example: if somebody said “I may dye my hair.” it would imply more that they were allowed to rather than that they were considering it. Or, for want of a better example, “I may enter this room.” I, personally, hate the use of ‘may’ in place of ‘might’ because I associate it more with its meaning ‘to express opportunity or permission’.

By: shoukat ali

shoukat ali — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 07:18:09 +0000

I want to be sand exercise

By: Jacquelyn Landis

Jacquelyn Landis — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:18:07 +0000

In response to Madolin’s question, the sentence you used as an example expresses both a result and a condition. Both expressions require one of the perfect verb tenses that show an action already completed. Since the actions are in the past, the auxillary verb should be in the past tense. And since “might” is the past tense of “may,” it’s the correct choice. –J. Landis

By: Lydia, Clueless Crafter

Lydia, Clueless Crafter — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:04:06 +0000

Corina has a good point that the use of these words may be contextual.

Would looking at other romance languages help? Do these two words use different verb tenses in say French, Spanish, Italian?

By: Madolin Wells

Madolin Wells — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:11:19 +0000

There is a very important may-might distinction, widely ignored or misunderstood, that is not addressed in this article. It shows up in what I believe is the conditional subjunctive. (Please advise if I’ve got the name of mood or tense wrong.) Ex: “John may not have waited if he’d known Mary had a ride home.” The verb should be “might not have waited.” This is cringe-inducing to the sensitive ear, because it implies that it has yet to be determined whether or not John waited. Can you elaborate on this?
Thanks, MW