{"id":74010,"date":"2020-04-15T05:50:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T05:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=74010"},"modified":"2020-04-15T05:50:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T05:50:32","slug":"may-vs-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/may-vs-can\/","title":{"rendered":"May vs. Can"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Both\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/modal-auxiliary-verb-can\/\"><b>can<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<b><a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/modal-auxiliary-verb-may\/\">may<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>can be used to talk about possibility. But there is some difference between them.\u00a0<b>Can\u00a0<\/b>is used to talk about theoretical possibility;\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>is used to talk about factual possibility.<\/p>\n<h5>Compare:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The road\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>be blocked due to the procession. (Factual possibility.)<\/li>\n<li>Any road\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>be blocked. (Theoretical possibility &#8211; It is possible to block any road.)<\/li>\n<li>There\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>be a strike next week. (It is possible that there will be a strike next week.)<\/li>\n<li>Strikes\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>happen any time. (It is possible for strikes to happen any time.)<\/li>\n<li>If you drive carelessly, you\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>have an accident. (Factual possibility)<\/li>\n<li>Accidents\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>happen any time. (Theoretical possibility)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we talk about possibility,\u00a0<b><a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/could-modal-auxiliary-verbs\/\">could<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>often means the same as\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>or\u00a0<b><a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/may-might-can-or-could-class-7-english-grammar-worksheets\/\">might<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You\u00a0<b>may\/might\/could\u00a0<\/b>be right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>May not and Cannot<\/h3>\n<p><b>May not\u00a0<\/b>suggests improbability.\u00a0<b>Cannot\u00a0<\/b>suggests impossibility.<\/p>\n<p><b>Compare:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We\u00a0<b>may\u00a0<\/b>not go camping this summer. (= It is possible that we may not go camping.)<\/li>\n<li>We\u00a0<b>cannot\u00a0<\/b>go camping this summer. (= It is not possible for us to go camping this summer.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both\u00a0can\u00a0and\u00a0may\u00a0can be used to talk about possibility. But there is some difference between them.\u00a0Can\u00a0is used to talk about theoretical possibility;\u00a0may\u00a0is used to talk about factual possibility. Compare: The road\u00a0may\u00a0be blocked due to the procession.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[1378,1611,2656,2655],"class_list":["post-74010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-can","tag-may","tag-may-or-can","tag-may-vs-can"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74011,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74010\/revisions\/74011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}