‘May’ is used for permission and to suggest that something is possible:
‘May I have a kiss?’
‘I may give you a kiss, if you keep your tongue in your own mouth.’
‘Might’, on the other hand, expresses a small possibility of something:
‘She might kiss you, but, seeing how ugly you are, it’s unlikely.’
‘She might have overlooked your ugly mug, if you’d shown her a little more consideration.’
Interestingly, Fowler (Fowler’s Modern English Usage) has nothing to say on this matter. So it would be correct to say:
‘Fowler may have made no mention of the topic but he might have considered it.’
Another way of looking at this
one is as follows:
‘May’ relates to what is factual
or possible, whereas ‘might’ is more generally used for the hypothetical.
I hope I’ve clarified rather than
obscured the matter for you.
23 August 1946 Keith Moon, the wild drummer in the band, ‘The Who’,
was born.
Pic: Scars on the hills in the Yorkshire Dales.
Also as in "I may write a brilliant book. I might even get the bloody thing published."
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about the brilliant book. Publication, unfortunately, is subject the weird, inconsistent and sometimes downright mad judgements of the publishers.
ReplyDelete