{"id":48,"date":"2019-04-17T12:22:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T12:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/zyle\/?p=48"},"modified":"2021-03-23T04:57:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T04:57:34","slug":"may-might","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/grammar\/may-might.htm","title":{"rendered":"May &#038; Might &#8211; English grammar courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this lesson, we will study the two forms of the verb \u2018May\u2019 (May &amp; Might) and their usage. These are two words that you will be using a lot when you\u2019re talking.<\/p>\n<p>May is used to ask for a permission in a polite way. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>May I borrow your bicycle?<\/li>\n<li>May we go out?<\/li>\n<li>May I have another meal, please?<\/li>\n<li>May I go to my room now?<\/li>\n<li>May I take this chair?<\/li>\n<li>May I sit down?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And May can be used in the answer for these questions. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You may not borrow it!<\/li>\n<li>No, you may not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Important note: May is very polite and formal. If you want to replace it with something more informal, you can say \u201ccan\u201d instead. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can we go out?<\/li>\n<li>Can I sit down?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>May is also used when we talk about something that can happen. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>it may rain this evening.<\/li>\n<li>I may go to France this summer.<\/li>\n<li>He may come around now.<\/li>\n<li>It may be too late to go outside.<\/li>\n<li>It may be OK.<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t know, maybe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The difference between \u201cmay be\u201d and \u201cmaybe\u201d is that \u201cmay be\u201d is an adverb and it modifies the word that comes after it. \u201cMaybe\u201d just means \u201cperhaps\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>As for Might, it\u2019s slightly different from May when we are talking about something that can happen. May talks about possibilities that are more likely. For example \u201cit may rain\u201d sounds more possible than \u201cit might rain\u201d. So a sentence with \u201cmight\u201d sounds less possible. The difference is very subtle. Let\u2019s look at some examples of \u201cmight\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It might rain this evening.<\/li>\n<li>He might come with us.<\/li>\n<li>I might go to the party.<\/li>\n<li>They might stop at the supermarket.<\/li>\n<li>He might get married soon.<\/li>\n<li>Can you check the door? It might be open.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep in mind that \u201cmight\u201d talks about something has a low possibility compared to \u201cmay\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>May have and Might have are used to talk about an event that could possibly have happened in the past or have just happened right now. The status of the event is not certain. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He may have been here.<\/li>\n<li>She might have arrived by now.<\/li>\n<li>They may have become lost.<\/li>\n<li>We might have a problem.<\/li>\n<li>You may have lied to me.<\/li>\n<li>I might have lied to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can also \u201cmay have\u201d and \u201cmight have\u201d in the negative. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I may not have come if you didn\u2019t prepare food.<\/li>\n<li>He might not have been here without you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s do some exercises with what we have learned already. Fill the gaps with \u201cmay\u201d, \u201cmay not\u201d, \u201cmight\u201d and \u201cmight not\u201d.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You _____ enter the house with your shoes on!<\/li>\n<li>He _____ be awake right now. It\u2019s 6 am.<\/li>\n<li>Your friend _____ come also. We still have space.<\/li>\n<li>I _____ have a good idea, I\u2019m not sure.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this lesson, we will study the two forms of the verb \u2018May\u2019 (May &amp; Might) and their usage. These are two words that you will be using a lot when you\u2019re talking. May is used to ask for a permission in a polite way. For example: May I borrow your bicycle? May we go &#8230; <a title=\"May &#038; Might &#8211; English grammar courses\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/grammar\/may-might.htm\" aria-label=\"Read more about May &#038; Might &#8211; English grammar courses\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}