They played a track from a group called They Might be Giants on the radio today. The pedant in me immediately thought “Noo, They ‘May’ be Giants”.
Then I thought, “no, ‘might’ is okay.”
Then I thought “why?”
Are may and might always interchangeable? In this sense at least, and was my first instinct wrong?
I don’t believe I’ve heard “might” used for the permissive sense of “may.”
I also believe “might” is functionally past tense, in the same sense that could and would are the past tense of can and will, respectively. If I say “I may have gone,” that means the option still exists that I did go. If I say “I might have gone,” that communicates that I didn’t, e.g. “I might have gone, had somethinge else not come up.”
Without words like “have,” I would agree the conditional sense allows both words. However, I would get a possible implied negation out of “They might be giants” but not “They may be giants.”
A language prof of mine in college said that “may” is more likely than “might.” 70% chance of rain? It may rain. 10%? It might rain.
What? No. Not at all. It might rain in either case.
If you see someone who looks tall in the distance, you could say “They might be giants, or those might be small houses.” If somebody has twins who are like, massive babies, you could say “they may (in the future) be giants.”
I’m not sure I understand the question, since the band name doesn’t have to make sense or anything.
“May” indicates that you are more likely to do something. I may go to the store means I probably will go to the store. “Might” suggests that you are less likely to do something. I might go to the store means it’s unlikely that I’ll go to the store. So while I may dance the hokey pokey with my daughters tonight (something we do most nights), I might hang up my clean clothes in my closet (something my wife claims I haven’t accomplished in five years).
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/may-vs-might
Sorry I doubted Dr. C and looked for a source. The guy spoke like seven languages…
I do not believe that are always precisely interchangeable. (Also considering ‘might’ as the past, possibly subjunctive, tense of ‘may’.) It also depends on precisely what is meant: it is possible that they be giants? It is possible that they are giants? They would be giants, if not for…?
ETA it is a complete sentence, but what can it mean?
You cannot tell which is “right” without the full context of the sentence. No sentence exists here.
Cool, but it doesn’t work with your example. It may rain? Who says it may rain? “I may” and “I might” are different from it, and it raining.
In the case of “They might be giants” it is referring to the remote chance that a windmill is actually a giant, as opposed to a more likely misidentification: “They may be ship sails.”
While I certainly won’t disagree, you have to be prepared to deal with the situation that they might be fake or they might be lies. Or, they might be big, big, fake, fake lies.
Whilst I think these words probably had distinct meanings in the past, now, they’re pretty much in the ‘use whichever one feels right’ category - and ‘feels right’ might not be the same for the writer/speaker as it is for the reader/listener.
If I’m looking out of the window at clouds gathering, I’ll probably say ‘It might rain’.
If I’m planning an event in April, I could choose to say ‘It may be raining’ (or ‘It may rain’)
That was pretty much my conclusion. Sometimes one or the other just sounds better in my head.
It seems to me that this is an issue more of style than grammar.
I asked about “may” vs. “might” long ago:
In case it needs to be said: The band They Might Be Giants took its name from the movie of that name, which took its title from this.
Years ago, the lobby of a concert hall in my area had a prominent sign that read LATECOMERS MIGHT NOT BE SEATED. I always assumed they went with “might” instead of the (IMHO) more natural-sounding “may” because LATECOMERS MAY NOT BE SEATED could be misinterpreted as “No latecomer is allowed to be seated.”
Yeah, ‘may not’ is a weird one because it often really means ‘definitely will not’ or ‘must not’.
eg:
“Customers may not consume food on these premises that was purchased elsewhere”
That means it’s not permitted.
Better, May have been “Latecomers may have to weight to be seated.”
A US president may run for a second term. Joe Biden might run for a second term.
Yes “may” has a permissible or allowable meaning in addition to the uncertainty meaning shared with “might”.
There’s a line in one of their songs: “We can’t be silent, cuz They might be giants–and what are we gonna do, unless they are?”
The “unless” really makes the line work.
I gave up on may vs might some time ago after being roundly informed that I was being pedantic in wondering why bridges were given permission to be icy.