4. Calcutta may become a major economic power in India

Let's see now the modal verb may and its past form might. Apart from permission, both of them can also express future and present possibility.
Icono IDevice Reading activity
Calcutta may become a major economic power in India
 
Cognizant Technology Solutions building at Salt Lake Sector-V, Electronics Complex
By jonoikobangali. C. Commons.
As you know, although Paco really likes to walk along the cities and see as many places as he can on his own, he also enjoys reading about the places he is visiting at the moment.
In fact, he is learning a lot about Kolkata: it is the main business, commercial and financial city of eastern India and the northeastern states. It is home to the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the second largest bourse in India.
Some outstanding companies have recently established their headquarters in Kolkata. We can find among them ITC Limited, Bata India, Birla Corporation, Coal India Limited, Damodar Valley Corporation, United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank.
Other important companies might be included here in the future.

Read the text and find a sentence with the modal verb may expressing future possibility, and another one with might expressing future possibility as well.


Icono de iDevice Reflexión
As well as making simple statements or asking questions, we may sometimes want to express our intentions and attitudes, talk about necessity and possibility, or make offers, requests, or suggestions. In English these uses of language are usually expressed by some verbs called modals.

 

Toilet saying hello.
By Moff. Creative Commons.
Student: Can I go to the bathroom sir?
Teacher: I’m sure you can, but you may not.

 

This old joke plays on different interpretations of can. The student is asking for permission, whereas the teacher is talking about ability. Some people might say that the student’s use of can is incorrect (the student should say May I go to the bathroom?). This view, however, is based on a very narrow understanding of modality and modal verbs in English.

 

Click below to see the uses of both may and might.

Icono de iDevice Solved exercise

1) May I have another piece of cake?

2) My parents might be sleeping now. I'll call them later.

3) Paco may become a very good tennis player.

4) Ask your father. He might let you watch TV until midnight.

 

Say which sentence with the modal verbs may and might expresses permission, present possibility or future possibility.

Icono de iDevice Self-assessment activity
Read the paragraph below and fill in the missing words with may or might.
1) Our students obtain good marks in the final exams.
2) I'm not sure if your parents let you come to my house next weekend.
3) I open the window? It's too hot in here.
4) The children be doing their homework now. We'll pick them up later.
By The Happy Robot. C. Commons.
  

Icono IDevice Curiosity

Rabindranath Tagore

By Saravask. Public domain.

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became Asia's first Nobel laureate by winning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

A Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore wrote poems at age eight. At age sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. Tagore denounced the British Raj and supported the Indian Independence Movement. His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore modernized Bengali art by rejecting the strictures of rigid classical Indian forms. His novels, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays ranged over political and personal topics alike. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are among his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed for their lyricism, colloquialism, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation. Two Tagore songs are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: Amar Shonar Bangla and Jana Gana Mana.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

 


Icono IDevice Further knowledge

Click here to learn about the formation of the verb may in affirmative, negative and interrogative.

Click here to learn about the formation of the verb might in affirmative, negative and interrogative.

 


OK. Let's go now with the modal verb shall and its past form should. The latter is very common in English and it is mainly used for giving advice.
« Anterior | Siguiente »