Timeline for "Can I" vs "May I" [duplicate]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 31, 2014 at 12:36 | comment | added | user58319 | Aren't “Can/Could/Will you help me with this?” and “Can/Could/May I go to the bathroom, please?” different things? A request for the first set of questions, asking someone if they agree to do something for you, and asking (for) permission, asking someone if they agree to let you do something for the second set of questions! | |
| Jan 31, 2014 at 2:41 | comment | added | user867 | @Mari-LouA I downvoted it for its lack of both clarity and apparent research effort. | |
| Jan 30, 2014 at 10:19 | history | closed |
Mari-Lou A FumbleFingers choster tchrist♦ anongoodnurse |
Duplicate of Difference between "can" and "may", What is the difference between 'can', 'could', 'may' and 'might'? | |
| Jan 30, 2014 at 8:52 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @FumbleFingers fair enough, but why is the poor chap getting downvotes? His question may already have been answered elsewhere, but it's not in itself a poor question. | |
| Jan 30, 2014 at 1:15 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @ Aaron: Please make some effort to search for an existing answer here before asking. There must be dozens of questions we could close this as a dup of. | |
| Jan 30, 2014 at 0:17 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jan 30, 2014 at 10:19 | |||||
| Jan 30, 2014 at 0:12 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | Your second paragraph does not in any way follow from the first. In the first (and traditionally objectionable) case, can is being used to ask for permission; in the latter, it is being used (semi-rhetorically) to ask for ability, which is precisely what has always been the unobjectionable use of the verb. “Can you get me some water?” is not asking for permission, it's asking “Is it possible [and not too much of a bother, understood] for you to get me some water?”. If you ‘fixed’ it to “May you get me some water?”, you'd end up with sheer nonsense. | |
| Jan 30, 2014 at 0:11 | history | edited | JSBձոգչ |
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| Jan 30, 2014 at 0:07 | answer | added | user867 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 29, 2014 at 23:53 | answer | added | WS2 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 29, 2014 at 23:33 | history | asked | Aaron | CC BY-SA 3.0 |