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May and might - Coggle Diagram
May and might
We use may / might (not 'can') + have+ past participle and may / might (not can't)+ be + -ing to talk about possible events in the past, present and future.
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When I go to Vienna I may / might be staying with Max, but I'm not sure yet. (future)
Note that could ,can be used in these sentences instead of may or might.
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We don't use may to ask questions about the possibility of something happening. Instead, we use for ex, could(n't) or the phrase be likely.
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It is possible to use might in this type of question, but it is rather formal.
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Might (not may) + bare infinitive is sometimes used to talk about what was typically the case in the past. This is a formal or literary use:
During the war, the police might arrest you for criticising the government.
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We can also use could + bare infinitive in examples like this to talk about past ability. ex: during the war, the police could arrest you... means that the police were legally able to arrest you.
May and might often have a similar meaning when we talk about possibility. However, we prefer may in academic or formal language to talk about characteristics or behavior:
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In speech, we prefer might to say that we will possibly do in the future:
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When we say that a person or thing compensates to some extent for a limitation or weakness by having another characteristic, we can use a pattern with may / might not + bare infinitive but , or, may / might not have + past participle ... but
The painting may not be a masterpiece, but the colours are remarkable.
She might not have danced very gracefully, but she had a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
We can use may / might have been + ing to talk about possible situations or activities that went on over a period of past time.
Callum didn't know where the ball was, but he thought his sister might have been playing with it before she left school.