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Which is correct:

I may have catch a cold.

Or

I may have caught a cold.

Should I use "may" or "might" and "catch" or "caught"?

Thanks.

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  • What have you done to solve this problem (apart from the obvious thing - posting it here :D)? I am sure there are many posts here about may vs might.
    – Man_From_India
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 6:19
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    Have you learnt to conjugate the English verb to catch? ( @Man_From_India The problem is the verb form of to catch, not the conditional!)
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 6:28

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If you use have before a verb, you are probably trying to make a perfect: in this case it's an infinitive form of the present perfect. A perfect requires a past participle: for catch, the past participle is caught. The correct version is therefore

I may have caught a cold.

In this context, there is little difference between may and might: they both introduce the idea of a low probability.

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    Technically, it's a perfect, unqualified: the 'tense' is on may/might, and the have is an infinitive. And I'd say the modality introduced here involves 'uncertainty' rather than 'probability'.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 12:02

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