Which one is better and correct answer for below question? Can we use May have for current possibilities?
Que : Where is your boss ?
Ans 1 : He may have left for the day.
Ans 2 : He may be left for the day.
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Related: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/69593/…– JavaLatteFeb 17, 2018 at 8:36
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3 Answers
May have + past participle refers to something that happened in the past: may be refers to something that is happening now.
He may have left for the day - past
He may be in his office - present
Note that maybe (without the space) can be used to intruduce doubt into a sentence. It as an adverb, so it can be used in three positions:
He went out for lunch
Maye he went out for lunch
He maybe went out for lunch.
He went out for lunch, maybe.
left for the day has a lasting effect, so you can't just use simple past: you have to use present perfect
Maybe he has left for the day
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@user4084 Only for current possibilities that involve actually "having" something. I may have an apple around here somewhere. Your example is using "have" as an auxiliary and is in present perfect. You might interpret his "current state" as either "left" or "not left," but his leaving had to occur in the past, if he did so. Feb 20, 2018 at 8:51
"He may be left" is ungrammatical. Your first sentence, "he may have left," is the correct way to word this. You're exactly right that we can use "may have" to describe current possibilities, but the most important part is that "to be left" is just not said that way. "He may be gone" is a more grammatical phrasing with a similar meaning, though I would still prefer "he may have left."
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I like simple answers like this because others cover so much ground it is confusing.– LambieFeb 23, 2018 at 22:46
Q: Where is your boss?
A1: He may have left for the day.
This response does answer the question. The "have left" is an active voice and perfect aspect construction. The subject represents a semantic agent or actor, even if the action itself is only hypothetical or proposed.
A2: He may be left for the day.
This response does not answer the question. Or, perhaps it does, but if it does it offers a completely different kind of answer. The "be left" is a passive voice and indefinite aspect construction. In the passive voice, the subject does not represent an actor or agent. In this sentence, no actor appears. The subject represents a semantic patient.
He didn't leave. Someone left him.
Without further context, the fact that someone left him tells us nothing about his location. With the right context, it might imply that he will remain here for the rest of the day. Perhaps his chauffeur left him, and that chauffeur won't return until the end of the workday.
A3: He may be gone for the day.
This response does answer the question, simply and directly. The structures of A2 and A3 seem to be the same, but the verbs involved behave differently. The verb "to leave" is transitive -- so strongly transitive that it always implies a patient. The verb "to go" is intransitive. It doesn't imply a patient. It doesn't accept a patient as a direct object. The subject remains the actor, even in a passive voice construction.
There is very little difference between "He may have gone" and "He may be gone". There is a world of difference between "He may have left" and "He may be left".
In all of these cases, "may" indicates a current possibility.
- He may have left for the day. It is currently possible that he has left for the day.
- He may be left for the day. It is currently possible that someone has left him for the day.
- He may have gone for the day. It is currently possible that he has gone for the day.
- He may be gone for the day. It is currently possible that he is gone for the day -- that he went somewhere else for the day, or that someone has taken him from here for the day.
