Back when I was in grammar school during high school, I distinctly remember the difference in use between “may” and “might”. This is not a surprising issue that we later encounter when communicating other people or when we use it in writing. In order to avoid any confusions and grammatical errors in writings, you should first know the difference between the use of “may” and “might”.
There are times that the use of these words is interchangeable that’s because when someone who is an English learner look at it, his or her first impression is that these words can be used alternately since they both express a possibility in your statements. However, the difference between the two is that “might” has a lesser possibility in definition than “may”.
Also, the word “might” is the past tense of the word “may” so whenever you are going to state something that already happened, “might” is the preferred word rather than “may”. In order not to confuse with these two words, here are some additional information about the difference of “might” and “may”
”May” was used to denote permission, as in “You may kiss the bride.”
”Might,” on the other hand, was employed to indicate a possibility, as in “You might have a chance at the world title this year.”
That rule, at least back then, was pretty hard and fast. In fact, I remember it so well because I got chastised about using them interchangeably so many times. That’s why I found it so odd a few years ago when I started using a writing software and it wasn’t declaring my use of “may” to show possibility as an error.
Nowadays, the word “may”, as an auxiliary verb, is still widely used to denote permission. However, it is also employed as an auxiliary that indicates a likelihood or a possibility. ”May”, after all, is the source word of “maybe”, a word that’s all about possibility. In the English language, “may” is always attached to a verb to show that the action can happen.
“Might,” on the other hand, is often treated as a slightly weaker form of “may”. The fact that “You might have a shot at this year’s tournament” is less likely (but is still a possibility) than the reality that “You may join the contest.”
As such, in most modern texts, “may” is used to imply a good probability for the action while “might” typically stands for a more unlike possibility. Both words can be used in either present or past tense, although some authors still prefer to use “might” when writing in the past tense.
Here’s an exception, though: when the sentence uses more than one verb, it’s usually best to use might in place of may. To illustrate this, check out this example: “I thought I might end this piece now.”
Whenever you are into writing, always see to it that you are using the right word that fits within your sentence in order not to confuse your readers or to cause any troubles in writing.
Author Resource:
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