May or Can?
by Ivana Recmanova & Vojtech Janda
In English, there are various modal verbs expressing possibility, probability, permissions, obligation, and everything in between. Many modal verbs can even express different meanings based on the context and time reference of their use. Let's take a look at how it works:
"Mum, can I go play outside with Alice and Brock?" Corey asked.
"Why, yes, you can! Off you go!" said Mum
In this example, Corey asked his Mum for permission to go play outside with friends, using the modal verb can, and the permission was granted using the same verb. Easy, isn't it? How about this?
"May I suggest something, Boss?" the new team member said shyly.
"I'm sorry, you may not. Not now, that is. But if you don't mind, hold on to the idea - you may, or rather should present it at the end of Mr Dan's talk in the discussion," the Boss replied.
Here, the newbie asks for permission to present his idea using the verb may, and is first denied permission, then promised permission using the same verb. This is nothing difficult as well. Let's continue:
"Can I go to the toilet?" a boy asked.
"I'm sure you can but please, not in the classroom. You may go when the lesson is finished," replied the teacher.
What happened there? What does the teacher mean by saying what is basically "You can, but you may not"? Well, as I wrote at the beginning of this article, modal verbs (or any words, for that matter) can have more than one meaning - and even non-native speakers can have trouble telling the difference between them. I'll try to break this down.
The modal verb "can" primarily or more typically means "be able to" - it expresses ability - and its secondary meaning is "be allowed to" - expressing permission. The teacher refuses to acknowledge the secondary meaning of "can" and replies as if the boy had asked about his ability to go to the toilet, when in fact the boy was, obviously, asking for permission, which the teacher didn't grant him. That wasn't very nice of him, no. Especially considering that this example is based on a true story because this situation is almost exactly what happened to my English teacher when he was still a boy studying English as a second language!
For the sake of completeness: "may" also has another meaning - expressing probability, like in the following sentence:
"There may be problems with your delivery due to severe traffic on the route," the message informed me.
It gets even more complicated when you want to express these meanings - permission, ability, possibility - in the past or future, but that's a matter better suited for an English course than this short article.
So, what lesson did that true story teach us? If you want to avoid someone's pedantic jokes, the next time you ask if you can or may do something, choose your words carefully!
