Possibility due to circumstances

e.g. You may order a taxi by telephone.

May in this meaning occurs only in affirmative sentences and is followed only by the simple infinitive.

The form might is used in past-time contexts in accordance with the rules of the sequence of tenses.

e.g. He said he might order a taxi by telephone.

Might+ Perfect infinitive = action was not carried out owing to certain circumstances/

e.g. He might have fallen ill if he hadn't taken the medicine. Luckily he wasn't driving the car. He might have been hurt. You are so careless. You might have broken the cup. (Ты чуть было не разбилчашку.)

3) permission,

e.g. The director is alone now. So you may see him now.

May in this meaning is found in affirmative sentences, in in- terrogative sentences which usually express a request, and in nega- tive sentences where it denotes prohibition. But in negative sen- tences it is not common as prohibition is generally expressed by other modal verbs (see can and must).

e.g. You may smoke in here. May I smoke in here? You may not smoke in here.

may is combined only with the simple infinitive. In interrogative sentences the form might is also found when we wish to express a more polite request.

e.g. Might I join you?

In reported speech the form might is used.

e.g. He told me that I might smoke in the room. He asked me if he might join us.

Disapproval or reproach,

e.g. You might carry the parcel for me. You might have helped me.

Here we find only the form might used in affirmative sentenc- es a nd followed by the simple or Perfect infinitive

.

§ 85. Notice the following set phrases with may and might:

a) May as well (might as well, might just as well) + infinitive is a very mild and unemphatic way of expressing an intention. It is also used to suggest or recommend an action.

E.g. I may as well take the child with me. (Я, пожалуй, возьму ребенка с собой. Пожалуй, будет лучше, если я возьму ребенка с собой.)

You may as well give him the letter.

I might as well stay at home tonight,

"I'll go at six." "That's far too late; you might just as well not go at all." (Можно было бы и неходить туда совсем.)

b) It might have been worse means 'Things are not so bad after all.' In Russian it is rendered as: Могло бы быть и хуже or В конце концов дела обстоят не так уж плохо.

c) Не might have been a... means 'He might have been taken for a...', 'He looked like a....'

E.g. Roy Wilson, the new doctor, was twenty-eight, large, heavy mature and blond. He might have been a Scandinavian sailor-

d) / f / may say so... has become a stereotyped phrase in which the meaning of permission is considerably weakened.