In practice, saying that the difference between may and might is the difference between possible and probable is a useless and pointless distinction. I don’t believe that this is used consistently enough to actually constitute a practical difference.
Always butters my crumpets when I see a road sign informing me that “BRIDGE MAY BE ICY”. :mad:
I’m tutoring an ESL adult. I generally pride myself on having pretty good grammar, but he asks about these sorts of distinctions, and I find it astoundingly difficult to try to explain them.
The two phrases in the OP convey a possibility and for that purpose, are perfectly interchangeable.
If there is any sort of significant nuance involved, these phrases alone are not sufficient to express that. In other words, if the “technical” differences between may and might actually matter, then you need to spell that out better than simply using the word you feel is most correct in this simple phrase.
This has always been my understanding, but I’ve seen so many people use the words differently that I started a thread asking about it.
Wow, a ten year old thread. Who woulda thunk?
Yeah, in my dialect, there’s no distinction that I can think of like that. “Where’s dad?” “He might have gone to the store” or “he may have gone to the store” ring exactly the same to me in terms of probability. I most likely would say “he might’ve gone to the store,” and , in saying that, I certainly am not at all implying that he didn’t. I mean that that’s my best guess of where he is.
Or, “He must have gone to a store.”
Well, “must have,” to me, indicates a far greater degree of probability/certainty on the speaker’s part.
And there’s, “He could’ve gone to a store.”
So many ways to convey the same answer.
Yeah, that one is probably on the same level as “might” for me. But “must have” is stronger.
I just now found a cite that claims that “might suggests a lower probability than does may.” I’m not entirely convinced about that.
But what I did find helpful is where that cite points out that might is the past tense of may, so “might” is appropriate in situations where something used to have been a possibility but isn’t anymore. The example given is that you’d say
“If John Lennon had not been shot, the Beatles might have gotten back together.”
and not
“If John Lennon had not been shot, the Beatles may have gotten back together.”
The latter sounds wrong to me, but only now do I understand why: it’s a tense agreement error.
Now that’s something to learn, past and present tense of words. Thanks for the tip.
There’s actually an interesting note here at the Oxford Dictionaries website. For the most part, it does indicate that may/might are in practice used interchangeably (when talking about possibility), but it does state the following:
I have to say, in that particular construction, there does seem to be a distinction in my dialect, too. I would use “might” in that sense, and not “may.”
(I should give credit to PatrickLondon, who actually did mention this in his post.)
I must have missed it.
Q: Thoughts on “May as well …” vs “Might as well …”?
The Vacivillains of Hesitonia are led by Mayor May Knott.
No, I get the impression that “might have” implied a near certainty of the contrary.
They went to Jackson and may have seen the eclipse.
But when used in conditionals,
If they had not gone to Jackson, they might not have seen the eclipse.
“might” strongly suggests that they did in fact see the eclipse. “May” is generally not used in conditional constructions. “The Beatles may have gotten back together” places a large uncertainty on whether they did. “May have” seems to carry “may not have” with it whereas “might have” usually implies “but did not” when used in conditionals (as a stand-alone, it is generally equivalent). And I cannot see “might” as being the past tense of “may” in modern usage.
Another distinction: the preterite form of modal verbs can be used for politeness, to “soften” a request. In the following examples, the second verb makes for a more polite request than the first:
“[Can/could] you please turn down the radio”; “[Will/would] you go to the bank on your way home?”; “[May/might] I have a moment of your time?”
“Might I have a moment of your time?” doesn’t sound right to me.
This page has a number of examples of this usage, including:
Might I ask you a question?
Might we just interrupt for a moment?
and in the test section:
Might I have a word in private?
Another common example would be: “might I suggest that you…?”
Do all these sound wrong to you?