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.
By jonoikobangali. C. Commons. |
By Moff. Creative Commons. |
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.
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.
By The Happy Robot. C. Commons. |
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.
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.