MAY/MIGHT

MAY/MIGHT

1. MEANINGS.

The commonest uses of MAY and MIGHT are to talk about possibility, and to ask for
(and give) permission.
We may be moving to Casablanca next year.
You know, I think it may rain.
May I have some more tea? Yes, of course, you may.
I wonder if I might ask you a favour.

2. PERMISSION.

a. MAY and MIGHT are both used to ask for permission. They are rather formal;
MIGHT carries the idea of being tentative or hesitant, and is not very common.
May I turn the television on?
I wonder if I might have a little more coffee.
MAY (not MIGHT) is also used to give permission; MAY NOT is used to refuse or forbid it.
Yes, of course you may.
Students may not stay out after midnight.

b. MAY and MIGHT can only normally be used to request, give and refuse permission. They are not usual when we talk about permission in other ways. Instead we use CAN and COULD.
These days, children can do what they like (not MAY).
When I was ten, I could watch more TV programmes if I asked my parents first (not MIGHT).

c. MIGHT does not normally have a past sense, only as the past tense of MAY in indirect
speech to report the giving of permission.
What are you doing here? The manager said I might look round.

3. POSSIBILITY.

a. MAY and MIGHT are often used to talk about the possibility that something will happen, or is happening. MIGHT is not the past of MAY; it suggests a smaller (present or future)
probability than MAY.
We may go climbing in the Atlas next summer.
I wonder where Aicha is. She may be with Nawal, I suppose.
Badr might phone. If he does, could you ask him to ring later?
I might get a job soon.
MAY is not used interrogatively in questions about possibility:
Is it likely to rain?
Do you think she's with Nawal?

b. MIGHT can have a conditional use.
If you took some exercise, you might not be so fat.

c. Both MAY and MIGHT can be used with perfect infinitives to talk about the possibility that past events happened.
Polly's very late. She may have missed her train.
What do you think that noise was? It might have been a cat.
MIGHT can also be used in this structure to say that a past event was possible, but didn't happen.
You were stupid to try climbing up there. You might have killed yourself.