May and Might

We use might:

• As the past tense of may for requests:

He asked if he might borrow the car.They wanted to know if they might come later.

• For very polite requests:

Might I ask you a question?Might we just interrupt for a moment?

We use may and might to talk about possible actions or happenings in the future:

I haven’t decided yet where to go for my holidays. I may go to Ireland.Take an umbrella with you. I may rain latter.The bus isn’t always on time. We might have to wait a few minutes.

The negative forms are may not or might not (mightn’t)

Liz may not go out tonight. She isn’t feeling well.There may not be enough time to discuss everything at the meeting.

Compare will and may/mightI’ll be late this evening. I may/might be late this evening.

Usually you can use may or might. But we use only might (not may) when the situation is not real:

If I were in Tom’s position, I might look for another job.

If he were today, he might help you.

If I were rich, I might travel around the world.

If companies sold affordable cars, I might buy one.

There is also a continuous form: may/might be -ing.

Don’t phone at 8.30. I might be watching the film on television.He is not at home. He might be playing football.

We also use may/might be -ing for possible plans.might

I may be going to Ireland in July.

Might as well / May as well

It means you should do something, because there is no good reason to do anything else.

If there’s nothing more to do, we may as well go to bed.

You might as well tell us now – we’ll find out sooner or later.

We may as well finish off this piece of cake – there’s only a little bit left

Exercises

We use may:

when we are not sure about something:Jack may be coming to see us tomorrow.Oh dear! It’s half past ten. We may be late for the meeting.There may not be very many people there.

to make polite requests:May I borrow the car tomorrow?May we come a bit later?

When we use may not for a refusal it is emphatic:You may not!You may not borrow the car until you can be more careful with it.

We use might:

• when we are not sure about something:

I might see you tomorrow.It looks nice, but it might be very expensive.It’s quite bright. It might not rain today.

• As the past tense of may for requests:

He asked if he might borrow the car.They wanted to know if they might come later.

• For very polite requests:

Might I ask you a question?Might we just interrupt for a moment?

We use may have and might have:

to show that something has possibly happened now or happened at some time in the past:

It’s ten o’clock. They might have arrived now.[= Perhaps they have arrived]

They may have arrived hours ago. [= Perhaps they arrived hours ago.]