ISI Swear EnglishLearn English Online

Modal Verbs - Lesson 206

May and Might for Possibility

Lesson 206 - learn may and might for possibility: how to form it, when to use it, clear examples and a short video from a British English teacher.

I Swear EnglishModal Verbs › May and Might for Possibility

How to form and use the may and might for possibility

We may have some money left. We might have some batteries.


The following video explains May and Might for Possibility:

Watch the video lesson

Video transcript

Hi. May and might for possibility. OK. I may go. Here may means the possibility. exists that... So, I may go. The possibility exists that I will go. OK. You could also say, I might go. Again the possibility exists that I will go. However notice, might is less probable than may. Let me give you some examples. OK. I'm coming to your house tomorrow, I may arrive early. The possibility exists. I might even arrive before twelve o'clock. The possibility exists, but less probability that I arrive before twelve. On my holidays I may go to Italy. possibility. I might even go to Greece, a possibility but more remote. Or for example: The weather forecast says that tomorrow it may rain, it might even snow. OK. the might again, a remoter possibility. Very often we use may to warn somebody about something. So for example: I know you have your party tomorrow, but I may not be able to come. Warning! The possibility exists that I will not come. OK. I may not arrive early. Be careful. Keep it in mind. So there you are, may for possibility and might for pos... possibility. OK. Notice in the past this is for speculation. So for example, if you got very drunk and don't remember you say: I may have drunk too much. OK. The possibility existed (but I don't remember) in the past. So there you go. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in another modal video. Bye for now.

Keep learning

This lesson is part of our free English Modal Verbs course. Work through the series in order, or jump to the tense or structure you need next.

All modal verbs lessons →