English Pronunciation AHD: mā SAMPA: /meI/ IPA: /meɪ/ Auxiliary verb may To have permission to. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests. You may smoke outside. May I sit there? Possibly, but not certainly. He may be lying. Usage notes Simple past might; no past participle; no future. For missing tenses, substitute inflected forms of be allowed to. The present tense is negated as may not, which can be contracted to mayn't, although this is old-fashioned; the simple past is negated as might not, which can be contracted to mightn't.) Usage of this word in the sense of possibly is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, as it blurs the meaning of the word in the sense have permission to. These speakers and writers prefer to use the word might instead. Synonyms (1): can, could, might (2): could, might Translations Finnish: voida French: peut (third person) (1), peut-être, il se peut que + subjunctive (2) You may smoke outside - Vous pouvez fumer dehors May I sit there? - Puis-je m'asseoir là? or Je peux m'asseoir là? or Est-ce que je peux m'asseoir là? He may be lying - Peut-être il ment or Il se peut qu'il mente Icelandic: mega Indonesian: boleh / dapat / bisa (1), mungkin / barangkali / bisa jadi / bisa saja (2) Italian: può (third person) (1), forse, può essere che + subjunctive (2) You may smoke outside - Potete fumare fuori May I sit there? - Posso sedermi là? He may be lying - Forse mente or Può essere che menta Japanese: してもいい (shitemo-ii) (1), 多分 (たぶん, tabun) (2) Portuguese: poder (1, 2) Romanian: putea Spanish: poder Tagalog: maaari, puwede Proper noun May The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, having 31 days. Usage note In this sense, May is always capitalized. Translations Albanian: maj Basque: maiatz Breton: Mae, miz Mae Bulgarian: май m Catalan: maig m Czech: květen m Dutch: mei Esperanto: majo Finnish: toukokuu French: mai Frisian: maaie, blommemoanne German: Mai Hungarian: május Icelandic: maí Indonesian: mei Interlingua: maio Italian: maggio Japanese: ５月 (ごがつ, gogatsu) Manchu: (sunja biya) Maori: mei Norwegian: mai Portuguese: maio Polish: maj Romanian: mai Russian: май (may) Slovak: máj m Spanish: mayo Tagalog: Mayo Thai: พฤษภาคม Noun may The hawthorn bush or its blossoms. Translations Bulgarian: глог m German: Weißdornblüte f Month of the Year: May Last: April Next: June
