关于may与might的用法要点归纳 1. 表示允许 (1) 表示请求允许(即请求别人允许自己做某事),两者都可用,只是 might 表示的语气较委婉(但并不表示过去)。 如: May I come
round in the morning? 我早上来行吗? I wonder if I
might use your phone. 不知可否用一下你的电话。 I’d like to
ask a question if I may. 如果可以的话,我想提个问题。 (2) 表示给予允许(即自己允许别人做某事),只用能 may而不能用might。 如: You may stop
now. 你现在可以停下来了。 注意,might 表示允许通常不表示过去,但是在间接引语(即宾语从句)中可以用作 may 的过去式来转述已给予的允许。 如: She said that
he might take her dictionary. 她说他可以拿她的词典去用。 2.
表示推测 (1) 后接动词原形,表示对现在或将来的推测。 如: He may
[might] be in his office now. 他现在说不定在办公室里。 Might he know the
answer? 他可能知道答案吗? (2) 后接动词进行式,表示动作正在进行或将要发生。 如: They may
[might] be going abroad next
month. 他们可能在下个月出国。 Might he be
waiting for us at the station? 他会不会在车站等我们? (3) 后接动词完成式,表示对过去可能发生的事进行推测。 如: He may [might] have gone to have his hair cut. 他可能理发去了。 She may
[might] have read it in the
papers. 她可能在报上已读到过此事。 注意,若不是单纯地对过去可能发生的事进行推测,而是表示以下用法,则只能用“might+完成式”,而不能用“may+完成式”: ①表示过去本来可能发生而实际上没有发生的情况,通常译为“本来可以”“本来可能”等。 如: She felt horror at
the thought of what might have
happened. 如: You might
have told us half an hour ago. 你半个钟头前告诉我就好了。 You might have taken
the trouble to tell me the meeting was put
off. If you hadn’t
reminded me, I might have
forgotten. 你如不提醒我,我可能就忘记了。 If we had taken the
other road we might have arrived
earlier. 意为“不妨”“还是……为好”等,用 might 比用 may 语气更委婉。 如: We may [might] (just)
walk there. 我们不妨步行去。 might as well有时还可用于指过去的情况或用于比较两个令人不愉快的情况。 如: Now that they were
all there she might as well speak her
mind. |
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