At 13:54 13/11/01 -0800, Karina Haavik wrote (in part):

>As for conditionals, the one which confuses and annoys me is may vs. >might. > >I thought that "might" was the conditional subjunctive and "may" was >present tense giving permission or admitting a fact. So I would >expect to hear (most commonly) "she might have been the best, but it >remained to be seen." (Doubt) Or (less commonly): "She may have been >the best, but her best was not good enough". (Admission of fact.) > >I tend to hear "may" being used where I expect "might" and I am >unclear as to whether this is a regional difference, or wrong, or a >misconception on my part.

At least in the UK, it's amazing how little we were ever taught about formal English grammar; most of what little I know was learnt (or learned!) during 3 years of enforced study of Latin. It is people like Paul D whose native language is something other than English who often know far more about English Grammar.

For what it's worth, what I was taught (back in the 60s), in the course of studying Latin, was that 'might' should be used in relation to the past, whilst 'may' relates to the present or future. If still true, that would mean that both of your examples should be 'might' - whereas, if you changed them into the present or future tenses (e.g. "She may be the best, but her best is not good enough" or "She may be the best next year, but she is not at present" - then 'may' would be correct in both cases.

There is, of course, an extra element of confusion and ambiguity in relation to 'may', which can also be used in the sense of 'is allowed to', as well as in the sense of 'possibly'. Hence, a sentence like "She may go to the bar during her lunchbreak' is, I think, totally ambiguous - as are so many things in English!

Kind Regards

John

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