may/might have..?

KKXX

想请大家指教： 可能错过了客户的一封邮件 我应该说 i may have missed your email 还是i might have missed your email呢？ ：） 我想来想去用了后者 到底该怎样说才对呢？

Ritacow

用 may. 比较礼貌。谦虚。

KKXX

原帖由 Ritacow 于 2011-5-28 01:14 发表
用 may. 比较礼貌。谦虚。

谢谢 可惜级别太低不能给你加分

Ritacow

没关系。因为是客户所以 may 比较适合。
一般来说 might have 就可以了

floraz

同意Ritacow，用may感觉语气尊敬些
我觉得may 比较might还显得likelihood更大

K

嗯。。。奇怪了

小时候我们问老师 "can I go to the toilet?“ 的时候老师会纠正我们说 say "could I go to the toilet" because past tense is more polite... (and of course "may" and "might" are more polite than "can" as well, but when comparing "may" and "might", I have always thought "might" is more polite hmm... could I be wrong?)


下面是从这个网站抄的
http://learnenglish.britishcounc ... have-and-might-have

Questions and negatives:

We make questions by putting the subject after may/might:
May I …? Could I … Might I …? Etc.

The negative forms are may not and might not..

We use may:

•when we are not sure about something:
Jack may be coming to see us tomorrow.
Oh dear! It’s half past ten. We may be late for the meeting.
There may not be very many people there.

•to make polite requests:
May I borrow the car tomorrow?
May we come a bit later?

When we use may not for a refusal it is emphatic:

You may not!
You may not borrow the car until you can be more careful with it.

We use might:

• when we are not sure about something:

I might see you tomorrow.
It looks nice, but it might be very expensive.
It’s quite bright. It might not rain today.

• As the past tense of may for requests:

He asked if he might borrow the car.
They wanted to know if they might come later.

• For very polite requests:

Might I ask you a question?
Might we just interrupt for a moment?

We use may have and might have to show that something has possibly happened now or happened at some time in the past:

It’s ten o’clock. They might have arrived now.[= Perhaps they have arrived]
They may have arrived hours ago. [= Perhaps they arrived hours ago.]