use of may and might

by maysanthawtar
(myanmar)

In which situation should we use may/might?

Comments for use of may and might

Mar 10, 2014

Use of may and might
by: IELTS buddy

Hi,

These are modal verbs and you use them to say that something is possible.

For example:

"I may go to the cinema tonight".

So it is not definite. It is something that could happen. Maybe you are not sure yet.

As they are modal verbs they are followed by the infinitive of the verb. You can learn more about modal verbs here:

Modal Verbs

There is a very slight difference between 'may' and 'might' - 'may' is a bit more likely to happen than 'might', but I would not worry about this.

It will not make much difference which you use in everyday use.

Thanks

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Use of need and dare as marginal modal auxiliaries verbs?!

by ritesh mehta
(jharkhand)

is Any English Expert here??? If yes, kindly solve out my issue!! are the following sentences right???

1) i needed not play Or
2) i need not have played.

Are those have the same meaning as marginal auxiliary verbs???? if yes, can we also apply the same in "dare" as marginal auxiliary verb???? I mean, is it right to say the following:- I dared not go.

Or

I dare not have gone.

Kindly reply!! Plzz!! I will be highly grateful if U reply it!!!

Comments for Use of need and dare as marginal modal auxiliaries verbs?!

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Oct 20, 2013

marginal modal auxiliaries verbs
by: IELTS buddy

I don't know much about marginal auxiliary verbs, but yes, 'dare' and 'need' are marginal auxiliaries.

NEED

As a marginal auxiliary 'need' does not have a past tense, so you cannot say 'needed'.

As far as I am aware, you can use present perfect with it though. So you can say:

"He need not have taken..."

DARE

As far as I am aware 'dare' can have any tense with it.

So you can say 'I dared not go' to talk about the past.

I'm not sure about the present perfect with it, but your sentence 'I dare not have gone' does not sound correct to me. I think I would need to know more about the context for why this sentence was being said.

Do a search on the internet. I am sure you will find more information.

Thanks

Oct 20, 2013

awfully thanks for your valuable response :) but still there is mistakes in your answer dear!
by: Ritesh mehta

First of all, I would like to thanks for your precious relply!!!
dear,I am sorry to say that you made a mistake in your answer i.e 'I dared not go'

I mean to say that,here you have used the "dare" as Main verb and not as marginal modal auxiliary!!!!
But still it is not correct sentence.
The correct sentence would be :
I dared not to go.
You missed the "to" in your sentence,because it is pretty essential to use "to" after dare as Main verb !!
And as marginal modal auxiliary we don't need to use "to".
For ,e.g,
I dare not play.
dare I play?

Maybe, i might be wrong? i ain't saying that your answers are quite wrong. I just wanna solve this out !!! You are requested to solve it. !!
I am awaiting for your precious response!!!!

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