MAY & MIGHT
May and Might are modal verbs.
They can normally be interchanged without a significant difference in meaning.
- I might go
- I may go
May and Might more or less have the same meaning. (We will see more about this later)
With modals verbs, there is only one form of them for every subject pronoun.
For example with the modal verb MIGHT. We say…
- I might
- You might
- He might
- She might
- It might
- We might
- They might
The same happens with MAY … I may, you may, he may, she may, it may, we may, they may.
Just like the other modal verbs, there is never an S at the end of may or might:
- She mights stay. (This is NOT CORRECT)
- She might stay. (This is CORRECT)
After MIGHT or MAY we have the verb, or more specifically, the base form of the infinitive.
This means the infinitive without To. For example the infinitive is To Go so the base form is just the Go part.
Instead of To Study, only study. Instead of To speak, we only put Speak after the modal verbs MIGHT and MAY.
For example:
- You might to go.
(This is NOT correct – we don’t use all of the infinitive – we need to remove the TO part)
So we say…
- You might go. (This is correct)
Also:
- She might knows.
(This IS NOT correct – we don’t conjugate the verb so no S is necessary – we need the base form of the infinitive)… so we say…
- She might know. (This is correct)
Example Sentences using MAY and MIGHT
Some example sentences with May and Might are…
- I might watch another episode.
- You may bring a partner to our event.
- He may have been
- She might tell us what happened if we ask her.
- It might rain this afternoon.
- We may be invited but I’m not sure.
- They might go to the beach this weekend.
When do we use MAY and MIGHT in English?
1. We can use May and Might – To express possibility
There is a chance of something being true or there is a possibility of something happening.
Note: Might is used more frequently than May in spoken English.
- Take an umbrella, it might rain later. (This means there is a possibility that it will rain later)
You can also say… it may rain later.
- I think she may win the singing competition …because her voice is amazing.
- They might be late because of the bus strike.
2. We can use May To ASK FOR permission
Note: May sounds more polite than using Can or Could when asking for permission.
- May I have some water please?
- May I borrow your dictionary?
- May I use the bathroom please?
It is best to use PLEASE in the question to make it more polite?
Note: In theory, Might can also be used to request permission but it sounds very formal and is rare.
3. We can also use May – To GIVE permission
We do NOT use Might to give permission.
- You may open the window if you become hot.
- You may take a brochure if you like.
- You may leave the room once you have finished the test.
4. To NOT give permission
We can use May not to NOT give permission or to PROHIBIT someone from doing something.
- You may not park your car in front of the gate. (No, it is not permitted)
- You may not leave the room without permission.
- You may not take photos inside the museum. (It is prohibited)
5. May: to talk about typical occurrences
May is used in academic (or scientific) language to refer to things that typically happen in certain situations.
- Drivers may feel tired if they do not take a break every 2 hours.
- Adults may find it difficult to sleep if they use technology before going to bed.
- These tablets may produce serious side effects if not taken in the correct dosage.
6. MAY and Might are used to Speculate about past actions.
Here we are saying that something was possible in the past but we are not sure.
For this situation we use (May + have + the past participle)
- Your comment may have offended some people.
- She is not here. She might have gone to the market.
- What was that noise outside? I think it may have been a cat.
With all of these examples, they were possible but we are not sure.
7. We can use MAY To express wishes
When expressing wishes, only May is used.
- May you both live a long and happy life together.
- May the New Year bring you love and happiness.
- May all your wishes come true.
- May the Force be with you.
MAY & MIGHT Summary Chart
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1. If the beard were all, the goat might preach. 
2. Might is (or makes or overcomes) right.
3. If wishes were horses, beggars might ride.
4. Where might is master, justice is servant.
5. Whatever you do, do with your might; Things done by halves are never done right.
6. One might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.
7. Love will not yield to all the might of wealth.
8. Might overcomes right.
9. How differences between men and women might be used for our mu-tual benefit in everything from our relation with one another to a better undrestanding of how our brains work.
10. I might say that success is won by three things: first, effort; second, more effort; third, still more effort.
11. Might is right.
12. We were afraid he might relapse into a coma.
13. The heavy rain might settle the changeable weather.
14. He speculated that this might lead to a success.
15. His mother won’t be there, but his father might.
16. A word of apology might not go amiss.
17. Different people might interpret events differently.
18. He might be useful to us.
19. I was hoping she might show a little compassion.
20. Some people might think I’ve underachieved in my job.
20. Sentencedict.com try its best to gather and create good sentences.
21. I’m following up a few things that might dovetail.
22. Might it be possible to prolong life indefinitely?
23. Better street lighting might help to reduce crime.
24. What you say might be true.
25. The scheme might work better with more favourable circumstances.
26. It might be sensible to get a solicitor.
27. This might need some salt and pepper.
28. I might go along to the party later.
29. I don’t care what they might say.
30. I stepped aside so that she might come in.
More similar words: highlight, right, night, light, eighth, flight, slight, height, lightly, tightly, light up, in sight, tighten, all right, fighter, delight, insight, by night, at night, right away, midnight, nightmare, lighting, slightly, out of sight, overnight, lightning, at midnight, straighten, night and day.
Sentence using the word might. The sentences below are ordered by length from shorter and easier to longer and more complex. They use might in a sentence, providing visitors a sentence for might.
- He might say Browny. (10)
- Well, I might as well. (9)
- That they might be alone. (8)
- Ultimately, it might be! (10)
- Might she have had Merthyr? (10)
- Oh, that we might never part! (10)
- Everett Wheeler might expect it. (13)
- She might do very well by herself. (4)
- I think that is just what he might be. (8)
- Matthew Weyburn might call at the house. (10)
- She was afraid he might find it too light. (9)
- You might think her heart came quietly out. (10)
- They might even discover the opinions of the editor. (16)
- Perhaps she might even do him a favour by summoning him. (5)
- For he might have had a chance, all through two Winters. (10)
- I desired that Janet might continue to think well of me. (10)
- His friend Mr. Owen had sisters; he might find them attractive. (4)
- She condescended to the particulars, that she might touch him. (10)
- Groseman Buttermore, as a man who might be useful to his friend. (10)
- He looked on it as one might look on the Hindoo drama of a Suttee. (10)
- If Sylvia woke, and found him still away, what might she not think? (8)
- But on the ten moons there might be life and creatures like ourselves. (12)
- These conditions might be overcome if the spirit of the times demanded. (16)
- Then, whatever might seem best, he could bring himself somehow to do it. (13)
- But in the meantime your innocent fellow clerk might have been prosecuted. (8)
- She might, Willoughby thought, have let herself be led; she was not docile. (10)
- She might have been a spirit threading the trees, for all the noise she made! (8)
- Catherine turned away her head, not knowing whether she might venture to laugh. (4)
- He was not at the time inclined to be vain, or he might have been sure she did. (10)
- The earliest form of bellows might be suggested by the leathern bag of the bagpipe. (3)
- He might do as well as Loring Stanton, but he doubted if Stanton was doing very well. (9)
- The thought that tongues might wag about her revolted his manhood and his sense of form. (8)
- The young Catholic gentleman expected he might hear a frenetic zealot roar out: Be off! (10)
- The idea that he might reason with her, made her seductive to the heart and head of him. (10)
- She just remembered enough of his eyes to think there might be healing in a sight of him. (10)
- Then with all his might he screwed his trunk and arms an inch further, and the bottle stood. (8)
- She might put her own people off when she liked, he would not have her putting off his people! (8)
- Me he never forgave for helping make him the happy man he might have been in spite of his age. (10)
- They might have topics inscribed on the flags-standard topics, that would serve for any voyage. (9)
- He urged his eagerness to ask whether he might indeed have the satisfaction of naming to-morrow. (10)
- Shelton fixed his eyes on that outside darkness, as one lost man might fix his eyes upon another. (8)
- That night he lay in a deep anguish, revolving the means by which he might help and protect her. (10)
- The man of science was not reckoning that Richard also might have learned to act and wear a mask. (10)
- This would be a tremendous object-lesson, and might be a warning to the millionaires and the tramps. (9)
- It was his building; he knew it from cornice to foundation; he might know how to get at those within! (13)
- Men who had charged side by side at Gledsmuir and Culloden, might meet as foes in Canada or Hindostan. (2)
- She could soon sit upright on the sofa, and began to hope she might be able to leave it by dinner-time. (4)
- That might be termed despicable; but what if she had not any longer the wish to gain her way with her lord? (10)
- She theorized on the side of poverty, and might do so: he had no right to be theorizing on the side of riches. (10)
- Marianne lifted up her eyes in astonishment, and Elinor conjectured that she might as well have held her tongue. (4)
- Would to Heaven that anything could be either said or done on my part that might offer consolation to such distress! (4)
- Haply also he had sacrificed more: he looked scientifically into the future: he might have sacrificed a nameless more. (10)
- Mrs. March faced her book down in her lap, and listened as if there might be some reason in the nonsense I was talking. (9)
- She knew too well that she was not of the snows which do not melt, however high her conceit of herself might place her. (10)
- There were certainly all the necessaries, but no luxuries unless the statues of Prayer and Faith might be so considered. (9)
- Harriet observed that this might be true; but still, to her mind, it was a mistake to be too intimate with dangerous people. (10)
- Nevertheless, he had not the self-denial to abandon a subject which he found interesting, however it might excite his friend. (1)
- You might have trepanned every one of their innocent heads, and found no more than so much coiled fishing-line below their skulls. (2)
- After some fruitless tremblings of wrath, she lay back relieved by the feeling that Merthyr was safe, come what might come to herself. (10)
- Without defending himself, as he might have done, he entreated me to postpone our journey for a day; he and Janet had some appointment. (10)
- And who is there, whatever might be their former conduct, that she would think capable of such an attempt, till it were proved against them? (4)
- She could not, she said, approve his behaviour in coming to this neighbourhood at all, and she hinted that I might induce him to keep away. (10)
- Adela had divined that Captain Gambier suspected his cousin Merthyr Powys of abstracting Emilia, that he might shield her from Mr. Pericles. (10)
- It was disagreeable, but he had weighed it against other disagreeable alternatives which might happen if he could not get the money he needed. (13)
- Still she had the consolation that Rose, seeing the vulgar mother, might turn from Evan: a poor distant hope, meagre and shapeless like herself. (10)
- Anyone who had seen the look, cold and furtive, thus interchanged, might have been pardoned for not appreciating the real understanding between them. (8)
- He informed them that Count Lenkenstein had ordered Lieutenant Pierson down to Meran, and that the lieutenant might expect to be cashiered within five days. (10)
- It might be enlightening with respect to present conditions to consider the probabilities and circumstances of their employment if they were here and in the flesh. (16)
Also see sentences for: energy, force, hardihood, potency, power, strength, vigor.
Glad you visited this page with a sentence for might. Now that you’ve seen how to use might in a sentence hope you might explore the rest of this educational reference site Sentencefor.com to see many other example sentences which provide word usage information.
More Sentence Examples
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ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE FOR INTERMEDIATE
29. May and Might 1
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A |
Study this example situation: You are looking for Ben. Nobody is sure We use may or might · · The negative forms are may not and might not (or mightn’t): · · Study the structure:
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B |
For the past we use may have (done) or might have (done): · B: She may have been asleep. · B: You might have left it at work. · B: She might not have known about it. · B: He may not have been feeling Study the structure:
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C |
Could is similar to may and might: · · But couldn’t (negative) is different from may not and might not. Compare: · (= it is not possible · · |
EXERCISES
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29.1 |
Write these sentences in a different
In sentences 9-11 use might not.
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29.2 |
Complete each sentence with a verb in
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29.3 |
Read the
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29.4 |
Complete the
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ANSWER
KEY
29.1
2 She might be busy.
3 She might be working.
4 She might want to be alone.
5 She might have been ill yesterday.
6 She might have gone home early.
7 She might have had to go home early.
8 She might have been working yesterday.
9 She might not want to see me.
10 She might not be working today.
11 She might not have been feeling well
yesterday.
You can use may instead of might
in all these sentences.
29.2
2 be
3 have been
4 be waiting
5 have arrived I have come
29.3
2 a She might be watching TV.
b She might have gone out.
3 a It might be in the car.
b You might have left it in the restaurant.
4 a He might have gone to bed early.
b He might not have heard the doorbell.
c He might have been in the shower.
You can use may instead of might
in all these sentences.
29.4
3 might not have received it I might not
have got it
4 couldn’t have been an accident
5 couldn’t have tried
6 might not have been American
Unit 29- Part A
 Study this example situation: You are looking for Bob. Nobody is sure where he is, but you get some suggestions.  |
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| We use may or might to say that something is a possibility. Usually you can use may or might, so you can say: • It may be true. or It might be true. (= perhaps it is true) • She might know. or She may know. The negative forms are may not and might not (or mightn’t):
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Unit 29- Part B
For the past we use may have (done) or might have (done):
• A: I wonder why Kate didn’t answer the phone.
B: She may have been asleep. (= perhaps she was asleep)
• A: I can’t find my bag anywhere.
B: You might have left it in the shop. (= perhaps you left it in the shop)
• A: I was surprised that Kate wasn’t at the meeting yesterday.
B: She might not have known about it. (= perhaps she didn’t know)
• A: I wonder why David was in such a bad mood yesterday.
B: He may not have been feeling well. (= perhaps he wasn’t feeling well)
Study the structure:
| I / you / he (etc.) | may might |
(not) have |
been (asleep / at home etc.) been (doing / working / feeling etc. known / had / wanted / left etc. |
Unit 29- Part C
Could is similar to may and might:
• It’s a strange story, but it could be true. (= it may/might be true)
• You could have left your bag in the shop. (= you may/might have left it)
But couldn’t (negative) is different from may not and might not. Compare:
• Sarah couldn’t have got my message. Otherwise she would have replied.
(= it is not possible that she got my message)
• I wonder why Sarah hasn’t replied to my message. I suppose she might not have got it.
Exercises
{slide=1 Write these sentences in a different way using might.}
Write these sentences in a different way using might.
{tooltip}Key.{end-link}2 She might be busy.
3 She might be working.
4 She might want to be alone.
5 She might have been ill yesterday.
6 She might have gone home early.
7 She might have had to go home early.
8 She might have been working yesterday.
9 She might not want to see me.
10 She might not be working today.
11 She might not have been feeling well yesterday.
You can use may instead of might in all these sentences.{end-tooltip}
| 1 Perhaps Helen is in her office. 2 Perhaps Helen is busy. 3 Perhaps she is working. 4 Perhaps she wants to be alone. 5 Perhaps she was ill yesterday. 6 Perhaps she went home early. 7 Perhaps she had to go home early. 8 Perhaps she was working yesterday. |
She might be in her office. ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ |
In sentences 9-11 use might not. |
|
| 9 Perhaps she doesn’t want to see me. 10 Perhaps she isn’t working today. 11 Perhaps she wasn’t feeling well yesterday. |
____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ |
{/slide} {slide=2 Complete each sentence with a verb in the correct form.}Complete each sentence with a verb in the correct form.
{tooltip}Key.{end-link}2 be
3 have been
4 be waiting
5 have{end-tooltip}
1 ‘Where’s Sam?’ ‘I’m not sure. He might be having lunch.’
2 ‘Who is that man with Emily?» ‘I’m not sure. It might ____________ her brother.’
3 A: Who was the man we saw with Anna yesterday?
B: I’m not sure. It may ____________ her brother.
4 A: What are those people doing by the side of the road?
B: I don’t know. They might ____________ for a bus.
5 ‘Do you have a stamp?’ ‘No, but ask Simon. He may ____________ one.’ {/slide} {slide=3 Read the situation and make sentences from the words in brackets.}Read the situation and make sentences from the words in brackets. Use might.
{tooltip}Key.{end-link}2 a She might be watching TV in her room.
b She might have gone out.
3 a It might be in the car.
b You might have left it in the restaurant last night.
4 a He might have gone to bed early.
b He might not have heard the doorbell.
с He might have been in the shower.
You can use may instead of might in all these sentences.{end-tooltip}
1 I can’t find Jeff anywhere. I wonder where he is.
a (he / go / shopping) He might have gone shopping.
b (he / play / tennis) He might be playing tennis.
2 I’m looking for Sarah. Do you know where she is?
a (she / watch / TV / in her room) _____________________________
b (she / go / out) _____________________________
3 I can’t find my umbrella. Have you seen it?
a (it / be / in the car) _____________________________
b (you / leave / in the restaurant last night) _____________________________
4 Why didn’t Dave answer the doorbell? I’m sure he was at home at the time.
a (he / go / to bed early) _____________________________
b (he / not / hear / the doorbell) _____________________________
с (he / be / in the shower) _____________________________ {/slide} {slide=4 Complete the sentences.} Complete the sentences using might not have … or couldn’t have … .
{tooltip}Key.{end-link}3 might not have received it
4 couldn’t have been an accident
5 couldn’t have tried
6 might not have been American{end-tooltip}
1 A: Do you think Sarah got the message we sent her?
B: No, she would have contacted us. She couldn’t have got it
2 A: I was surprised Kate wasn’t at the meeting. Perhaps she didn’t know about it.
B: That’s possible. She might not have known about it
3 A: I wonder why they never replied to our letter. Do you think they received it?
B: Maybe not. They _____________________________________
4 A: I wonder how the fire started. Was it an accident?
B: No, the police say it _____________________________________
5 A: Mike says he needs to see you. He tried to find you yesterday.
B: Well, he _____________________________________ very hard. I was in my office all day.
6 A: The man you spoke to – are you sure he was American?
B: No, I’m not sure. He _____________________________________{/slide}