Sentence Correction

Hi All,

Can someone please tell....is there any difference in using "May" and "Might" in GMAT ? Is might used in past tense and may in future/present tense. Kindly share your views about:

a) Is there one that GMAT generally prefers over other? Or
b) there are any particular cases where one is preferred over other ? Or
c) there is no difference in their usage as far as GMAT is concerned.

Thanks
Mohit

Hi Mohit,

I think that in general, "may" and "might" are interchangeable, with a few exceptions:

1) If you're speaking in the past tense, you should use "might" and not "may." For example: The economic downturn might not have occurred if there had been better government oversight of financial institutions.

2) "May" can be used to indicate permission. For example: May I use your telephone, please?

Thanks.

In the below sentences which one is correct or both are correct:

1. As many as 300 of the 720 paintings attributed to Rembrandt "may" actually be the works of his students or other admirers.
2. As many as 300 of the 720 paintings attributed to Rembrandt "might" actually be the works of his students or other admirers.

Thanks
Mohit

I think it would be 1 which is correct solely because we are talking about the paintings being analysed in the future, so may would be correct. Might as mentioned in the earlier post would have been correct if the analysis were already complete. Lets wait for the expert opinion though.

delhiboy1979 wrote:I think it would be 1 which is correct solely because we are talking about the paintings being analysed in the future, so may would be correct.

Can you please tell how analysis is done in future here....i suppose it is present....please tell if I am wrong here...

And in present as Courtney suggested earlier....can we use may/might interchangeably ? or we can not....in this case....???

found a link on may/might

"may" indicates greater possibility than "might"

https://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/may.html

I believe may is more assertive and is used for present tense.Moreover, I have seen on some questions that may is preferred over might. SO i think better to use may when we have both of them.

gmat620 wrote:Moreover, I have seen on some questions that may is preferred over might.

Can you please give some example of this. There might be some other reason too....

@goelmohit2002


https://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-practice- ... 15449.html

Hi gmat620,

In the link provided, I am not 100% sure for may Vs might there.....

IMO We can kick out "E" because of "descendant from"...it is correct to say either of the following:

1. descended from
2. descendant of

So IMO there we cannot simply kick out "E" based on May Vs might.

Please tell if I am missing something here.

Please tell which one or both are correct sentences below:

1. As many as 300 of the 720 paintings attributed to Rembrandt "may" actually be the works of his students or other admirers.
2. As many as 300 of the 720 paintings attributed to Rembrandt "might" actually be the works of his students or other admirers.

Thanks
Mohit

goelmohit, i didn't catch that at first..Ok, I don't remember any example as of now but as soon as i will find i will share it with everyone...here's is alink you may find useful :

https://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/may-might.aspx

goelmohit2002 wrote:

delhiboy1979 wrote:I think it would be 1 which is correct solely because we are talking about the paintings being analysed in the future, so may would be correct.

Can you please tell how analysis is done in future here....i suppose it is present....please tell if I am wrong here...

And in present as Courtney suggested earlier....can we use may/might interchangeably ? or we can not....in this case....???

Experts Kindly share your opinion.

I was thinking: might actually be the works of his students or other admirers - because those works were done in the past?

Why should I not think of using the past form, when the action (works) happened in the past?
Or is the use of may/might based on the time of guessing?