may/might

Usually, they are interchangeable, but sometimes "might" is used to express a smaller likelihood than "may". Only sometimes. Usually the words are considered equivalent.

Contrex, I'm interested in your idea that the words are considered equivalent. Could you please provide some examples where you consider them to be equivalents?

may / might

... We can use the modal auxiliaries may or might to say that there is a chance that something is true or may happen. May and might are used to talk about present or future events. They can normally be used interchangeably, although might may suggest a smaller chance of something happening. Compare the following:

* I may go into town tomorrow for the Christmas sales. And James might come with me!
* What are you doing over the New Year, Ann? ~ Oh, I may go to Scotland, but there again, I might stay at home.
* If you go to bed early tonight, you may / might feel better tomorrow.
* If you went to bed early tonight, you might feel better tomorrow.
* One of my New Year resolutions is to go to the gym twice a week! ~ And pigs might fly!

Note that 'Pigs might fly' is a fixed expression and always uses might. It means that something will never happen.

In the first conditional example, will perhaps could be substituted.

* If you go to bed early tonight, you may / might feel better tomorrow.

In the second conditional example, where might is an alternative for would perhaps, may cannot be substituted.

* If you went to bed early tonight, you might feel better tomorrow.

JTT wrote:

Contrex, I'm interested in your idea that the words are considered equivalent. Could you please provide some examples where you consider them to be equivalents?

I was going by what the BBC Learning English website says, and my own experience. Do you disagree?

Hello Contrex. Thanks for your reply.

Do I think that they are sometimes equivalents? I guess I'd say no, because they are different modals sometimes they come so close to each other that they can easily be seen as equivalents AND because words are highly flexible, it's easy for them to be seen as equivalent.

Have I confused you sufficiently?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv162.shtml

Note that it says that "might" may suggest a smaller chance etc, not that it invariably does so.

Quote:

may / might

... We can use the modal auxiliaries may or might to say that there is a chance that something is true or may happen. May and might are used to talk about present or future events. They can normally be used interchangeably, although might may suggest a smaller chance of something happening. Compare the following:

* I may go into town tomorrow for the Christmas sales. And James might come with me!
* What are you doing over the New Year, Ann? ~ Oh, I may go to Scotland, but there again, I might stay at home.
* If you go to bed early tonight, you may / might feel better tomorrow.
* If you went to bed early tonight, you may/might feel better tomorrow.
* One of my New Year resolutions is to go to the gym twice a week! ~ And pigs might fly!

Note that 'Pigs might fly' is a fixed expression and always uses might. It means that something will never happen.

I haven't seen anything from that site that supports their contention that the two modals are the same. Actually, they can't be used interchangeably because if a person wants to suggest a stronger possibility they will use 'may', a lesser possibility, 'might'.

These words obviously describe a range of certainty that can/could be expressed numerically because a person can be 1% sure of something or 99.9% sure of something or anything in between.

Now of course, the numbers are much more exact than the modals. The range of certainty described by a modal or a semi-modal [probably/likely/perhaps] have to meet somewhere and it is at these "meeting points" that the difference becomes negligible.

What's the difference between,

He MIGHT WELL come to the party.

AND

He maaayyy come to the party.

The 'might' is right up at the top of its range and the 'may' is down at the bottom of its range, their meeting point and the difference is next to nothing.


In the first conditional example, will perhaps could be substituted.

'maybe' could also be used.

* If you go to bed early tonight, you may / might feel better tomorrow.


In the second conditional example, where might is an alternative for would perhaps, may cannot be substituted.

* If you went to bed early tonight, you might feel better tomorrow.

Why can't 'may' be used here? They provide no reason or reasons.

Hi JTT

* If you went to bed early tonight, you might feel better tomorrow.

Why can't 'may' be used here? They provide no reason or reasons.

Allow me to answer on behalf of Contrex.

If you went to bed early tonight, you may feel better tomorrow. ('went' is past tense, but 'may' relates to the present. The sentence is concerned with something that is hypothetical. Hence, 'might' should be use instead. )

'went' is not past tense, it is only the past tense FORM. There's a big difference.

Quote:

'went' is not past tense, it is only the past tense FORM. There's a big difference.

But because it is the past tense form, the rest of the sentence must correspond.

Why must the rest of the sentence correspond, Syntinen? Correspond to what? Following that logic, you prevent certain levels of certainty from being expressed. Why do you think that by choosing 'might' there is a "correspondence"?


Consider this analogy:

If you go to bed early tonight, you will feel better tomorrow

and:

If you went to bed early tonight, you would feel better tomorrow"

Surely you agree that "If you went to bed early tonight, you will feel better tomorrow" is blatantly wrong?

Far too taut i wooda thunk

Far too taut i wooda thunk