losttreasure
Posts: 875
Joined: 12/17/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mstrjx Well, since you probably have the 'mad skillz' to be the final arbiter, I'll let you make the call. lol... To be honest, I had a very fleeting thought to consider your use of "may", but dismissed it. I will concede that your schoolteacher might have had a point with regard to some usage of the word "may", but it's not quite so cut and dried. There is the word "may" that is used to ask permission. There is also the word "might" that is used to ask permission. "May I have more tea?" and "Might I have more tea?" are both correct in present tense. There is also the word "may" that is used to express possibility. In this usage, "might" can be considered past tense, but most of the time I have seen it typically partnered with "have". For example, "he may jump off the bridge"... present tense, "he might have jumped off the bridge"... past tense. But you can also quite correctly say "he might jump off the bridge"... present tense, or "he may have jumped off the bridge", past tense. *whispering* Just don't let "may" in the present tense get you confused as it implies futurity. Its use is an auxiliary construction amounting to a compound future quasi-tense as there is no proper future tense in English. To add more confusion to the mix... May/Might By the way, the link at the bottom of that page will make your head spin.
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