I may faint

[avevale_intelligencer]

C J Cherryh nails it:

"Use 'may' in a present tense or future tense sentence. Use 'might' in any past tense sentence. You may also use 'might' in a present tense sentence, but you must never, ever, ever use 'may' in a past tense sentence. HE SAYS HE MAY GO. HE SAID HE MIGHT GO. HE SAYS HE MIGHT GO (remote possibility). All the previous are correct. HE SAID HE MAY GO is wrong, wrong, wrong, no matter how often you may hear it on the nightly news. It's my belief there must be a grammar correction software out there that has it wrong, because American English works are suddenly rife with this error. I know for a fact there is one professional copyeditor on the loose that tries to 'correct' manuscripts to this incorrect usage. The finesses of this may-might business are considerable. Train yourself to wince when someone violates what's technically called the 'sequence of tenses' rule."

Various writers, including the late and much lamented Sir Terry, either don't know, have forgotten, or (much more likely) have been gratuitously edited to make it appear as if they don't know this rule. I don't have to train myself. When I see passages like this (this is my own invention, but trust me, they're out there):

"He controlled himself with difficulty. He may be the son of the Duke of Kafurtel, but he was also Chief Grumpclutcher of the Ormolu Club."

...especially in a book by someone who is trying to write in Victorian British-English idiom, the wince happens reflexively. I think "He may be? You're the writer. Don't you know?" And my confidence in that writer is accordingly reduced.

There will be those who will feel compelled to hasten to tell me that it doesn't matter, that the language is evolving, that such distinctions are unimportant, that I am a Nazi, and so on. Whether they would say the same to Ms Cherryh I know not. Either way, I urge them to spare themselves the effort and the resultant argument. The above misusage is not a part of any precious regional dialect or cultural heritage. It is not a mark of down-home folksy charm. It is not evidence that the speaker/writer is a Person of the People, not one of your stuck-up pinko longhair intellectuals. It is not worth fighting for. It is simply a mistake arising from sloppiness and laziness. It is, in the end, just wrong, whoever does it, however many do it; and if it becomes common usage across the entire English-speaking world, it will still be wrong.

Language is a tool box. There is a right and a wrong way to use every single tool in it, whether you agree with that or not, and the right way generally works better.

Comments

[alun dudek (from livejournal.com)]

I suspect that the error arises out of confusion about how reported speech works in English. For example, He said "He may go." would be correct. Though I admit I personally don't find it a wincing error. Guess I am just less ... let's go with strict ... than you

One particular wince inducing moment for me was watching an "English teacher" on BBC 24 News channel explaining when the 'S' doesn't follow the apostrophe wrongly (it was an item about the use of the apostrophe). According to this (secondary teacher, if memory serves), the s after the apostrophe is dropped when the noun is plural - which would mean, for example, the genitive/possessive of men would be men', not men's.

With such ignorance among the teachers, the ignorance of the pupils seems inevitable (if no less unforgivable).

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Here's a big "Hear, hear!" for your first four paragraphs. (After that we diverge.)