Whats the difference MAY vs MIGHT Basic English Grammar
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101.com
hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
lesson I’m going to talk about the
differences between May and might
let’s get started first I want to begin
this lesson with the word May I want to
talk about two ways that we use May in
modern American English first we use May
to request and give permission so that
means when we ask for permission we can
use May and when we give permission we
can use May let’s look at a common
example first person a says may I use
your pen may I use your pen B says yes
you may
yes you may so in this question may is
used to request to ask for permission
may I and then B gives permission with
may yes you may
so this yes you may means yes you may
use my pen in other words in many cases
however native speakers drop this part
they just say yes or sure or okay when
you’re making a question like this make
sure that may comes before your subject
so may I use your pen not I may use your
pen
don’t use that pattern please use may I
use your pen may we use your pen or use
your computer for example so make sure
May is coming before your eye or we or
he or she
you can choose to reply with yes you may
the negative here would be no you may
not
no you may not another common example
with may a common request is may I use
the restroom may I use the restroom I’m
going to talk a little bit more about
another expression we use can in this
question and similar questions a little
bit later
for now though let’s consider this point
one firme let’s go to point two for me
the second use of May is to express a
low to moderate moderate is like medium
a low to moderate level of possibility
so May has this meaning yes
so does might as I’ll talk about later
but May is less commonly used than might
in American English so if you use May in
a case like this as we’ll see in a
moment it’s going to sound a little more
formal a little more polite in American
English we tend to use might more but
let’s look at some examples there’s no
communication problem here it just
sounds a little formal first a positive
statement I may visit a restaurant later
today I may visit a restaurant later
today means there’s a possibility so
kind of low to moderate level maybe like
20 to 40 50 percent chance I’ll visit a
restaurant later today in the negative
then the next two sentence is we may not
have time to finish our report today we
may not have time to finish our report
today so this may not means there’s a
possibility that we will not have time
so there’s kind of this chance that this
thing will not be done today so same
thing in the next one she may not be
able to make it to the meeting so it
might not is another way to say this yes
but there’s a low or moderate chance she
will be able to make it so we use may
not or as we’ll see later might not to
express that one more positive sentence
he may join us later
so again positive so that shows there is
a chance that he’s going to come later
so think about this you can use May to
talk about something in positive
sentences that you think has a chance of
happening a chance of occurring and may
not to talk about something you think
has a chance
not happening so finally I want to end
this section with this note about May
versus can for permission so I mentioned
that in this question here may I use the
restroom for example we use both May and
can in modern English to ask for
permission
so there’s generally not a communication
problem however some people prefer to
use historical rules for these two words
historically May has been used for
permission so for this kind of thing
this is a situation where the speaker is
asking for permission like is it okay if
I do this can however historically has
been used to talk about abilities so the
things we are able to do for example I
can speak English I can speak French
so if you’re thinking historically can I
use the restroom for some people some
people who are very strict about rules
think it means like do I have the
ability to use the restroom
of course in modern American English we
use them the same so it’s a permission
question but occasionally you will meet
people who prefer to use this may rule
the historical may rule so if you want
to be sure to be correct always please
use may when you’re trying to ask for
permission in a situation like this or
like this as well so if you want to be
very very strict you can use May but
many people use can I think I probably
use can most of the time because May
does sound a little bit formal but for
your information this is the historical
difference between these two words okay
so with that in mind let’s continue to
might might so we use might to express a
low to moderate level of possibility
just as with May here however might is
more commonly used than May in American
English so again this point is about
American English we tend to use might
more often than
in American English it might be a little
different for British English speakers
so we can make the same sentences that
we made over here we can substitute
might in place of May for example I
might visit a restaurant later today I
might hear so a positive sentence and to
me an American English speaker this
sounds much more like friendly much more
commonly used I might visit a restaurant
later today a negative we might not have
time to finish our report today we might
not have time so again there’s a chance
we won’t have time to do this another
negative she might not be able to make
it to the meeting she might not be able
to make it to the meeting so again this
doesn’t sound so formal she may not
sound a little more polite
finally he might join us later he might
join us later a positive expression so
again it sounds friendly it sounds like
in everyday conversation so if you want
to sound a bit more polite maybe you’re
using this at work for example you could
use may to sound a little bit more
polite otherwise I would recommend using
might to sound friendly and have kind of
a more everyday feel to your
conversation one final point here is
this old-fashioned point so this is not
used might is not used in this way in
modern American English but you might
hear it sometimes so it’s an
old-fashioned use but using might to
make requests for permission so like we
talked about here but like I said this
is not used in modern American English
except for media so this is why I chose
to include this point in this lesson so
you might hear sentences like these like
might I come in or might I help you so
these are like requests we’re asking is
it ok to come in or like is it ok if I
help you so it’s kind of like making an
offer this is an old-fashioned or
archaic use of might in
in English perhaps you’ll hear this in
British English but this is very rarely
used in modern American English unless
you’re watching a movie that set in a
time period a couple hundred years ago
perhaps but this is not so commonly used
if you want to make a question a
permission question use May instead but
you may hear this okay so this is a
quick introduction to the differences
between May and might and a quick
discussion of May versus can for
permission so I hope that this helped
you understand the differences between
using these words if you have any
questions or comments please feel free
to let us know in the comment section of
this video of course if you like the
video please don’t forget to give it a
thumbs up subscribe to our channel if
you have not already and check us out at
English class 101.com
for some other things that can help you
with your English Studies thanks very
much for watching this lesson and I will
see you again soon bye
[Music]