TinyProf's Guide to May vs. Might in Past Tense Narratives

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1. What We're Solving

You've noticed that sentences using 'may' inside past tense narratives feel "off" — and your instinct is actually picking up on something real and important. We're going to figure out why that is, so you can make confident, informed choices in your own writing.

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2. The Approach

To understand whether something is "wrong," we need to examine how modal verbs work grammatically, and specifically how they interact with tense sequence — the principle that verb tenses in a sentence or passage need to be logically consistent with each other.

Think of it like a time zone system. If your narrative is "living" in the past, all your verbs need to be set to "past time zone." Modals are no exception.

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3. Step-by-Step Solution

Step 1: Understand What Modal Verbs Actually Are

Modal verbs are helpers that express things like:

• Possibility (maybe this is true)
• Permission (you're allowed to)
• Conditionality (if this, then that)

The key modals for your question are:

| Present/Future feel | Past feel | |---|---| | may | might | | can | could | | will | would | | shall | should |

Notice the pattern! English modals come in present/future ↔ past pairs. This is baked into the language's architecture.

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Step 2: Understand "Backshifting" (This Is the Key Concept!)

When you write in past tense narrative, your verbs naturally "shift back" in time. Grammarians call this backshifting, and it applies to modal verbs too.

Here's a simple example:

> Direct/Present thought: "This may be dangerous," she thinks. > ✅ Present tense → 'may' fits perfectly

> Past tense narration: She thought this might be dangerous. > ✅ Past tense → 'may' has backshifted to 'might'

If we kept 'may' in the second sentence: > ❌ She thought this may be dangerous.

This creates a tense mismatch — like one clock in your story is showing the wrong time. Your brain notices this friction, even if you can't immediately name why!

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Step 3: Understand Why 'May' vs. 'Might' Isn't Just About Tense

'May' and 'might' also carry different degrees of possibility, even in the present:

| Word | Degree of Possibility | |---|---| | May | Stronger possibility — more likely | | Might | Weaker possibility — more uncertain, more hypothetical |

In past tense narrative, 'might' does double duty — it:

• 1. ✅ Correctly backshifts the tense
• 2. ✅ Signals deeper uncertainty or speculation (perfect for sci-fi/fantasy worlds!)

This is why those sentences feel jarring. 'May' sounds too confident and too present-tense for a speculative moment inside a past tense story.

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Step 4: So Is Using 'May' in Past Narratives Always Wrong?

Generally incorrect (or at least awkward): Using 'may' in a past tense conditional when you're describing a character's in-the-moment past speculation. > ❌ He wondered if the ship may have already left. > ✅ He wondered if the ship might have already left.

Potentially acceptable — in two specific cases:

> 🔹 Case 1: Omniscient narration making a timeless/universal statement > Sometimes a narrator steps outside the story's timeline to make a general observation. Here 'may' can survive: > "The alien artifact, as we now understand, may represent the last remnant of a lost civilization." > This works because the narrator is speaking from outside the past tense frame.

> 🔹 Case 2: Direct internal monologue (free indirect discourse) > She stared at the portal. This may be her only chance. > Here the author is mimicking the character's present-tense thought directly. The 'may' is intentional — it puts us inside her head in real time.

The tell: If you can't identify one of these two justifications, 'might' is almost certainly the right choice in past tense narrative.

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Step 5: Apply This to Your Sci-Fi/Fantasy Examples

Here's how to diagnose each one yourself. Ask three questions:

> Question 1: Is the overall narrative in past tense? > Question 2: Is the 'may' expressing a character's speculation or a conditional situation within that past tense world? > Question 3: Is this general/universal narration, or direct thought mimicry?

If yes to 1 and 2, and no to 3 → swap 'may' for 'might' ✅

If the author used 'may' anyway, it's most likely one of these:

• 🔸 A genuine grammatical slip (happens even in published books!)
• 🔸 A stylistic choice to create immediacy (intentional but debatable)
• 🔸 Influence from British English, which is sometimes slightly more flexible here

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4. The Answer

Your instinct is correct. In most past tense narrative contexts — especially speculative or conditional ones — 'might' is the grammatically appropriate and stylistically superior choice over 'may.' This is because:

• 1. Backshifting rules require modals to shift to their past forms in past tense narration
• 2. 'Might' conveys the deeper uncertainty that speculative/conditional statements need
• 3. 'May' in these contexts creates a tense inconsistency that careful readers will feel as friction

The uses you found jarring are either grammatical errors or unconventional stylistic choices — and in either case, you'd be on solid grammatical ground to prefer 'might' in your own writing.

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5. Memory Tip 🧠

"If your story lives in the PAST, your maybes need a MASK."

The "mask" = the past form of the modal:

• may → might
• can → could
• will → would

Or even simpler:

> 🎯 "Past story, past modal. 'May' stays in today; 'might' travels into yesterday."

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You're asking exactly the right questions — noticing that something feels wrong and wanting to understand why is the mark of a writer who genuinely cares about their craft. Keep trusting that instinct! 🌟