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Is it possible to write "may" only once in a sentence? Which one the sentences above is suitable for writing?

Android may affect the system in a good way and may help in obtaining new useful features.

Or

Android may affect the system in a good way and help in obtaining new useful features.

Writing "may" one time makes the second sentence correct meaning like the first one?

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    You don't need the second may. It's parallelism. The affect and help serve as verbs in the same context and thus the first may is linked with the latter clause as well (with and)
    – Maulik V
    Commented Feb 12, 2014 at 10:56
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    This will take mentioning two verbs differently - Android may affect the system in a good way and is one of the most popular OSes in the technology world. Here, the verbs don't act in the same way and hence, this parallelism requires mentioning of two verbs separately though joined with and.
    – Maulik V
    Commented Feb 12, 2014 at 11:35

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Your sentence is related to the following two independent sentences:

Android [ may affect the system in a good way ].
Android [ may help in obtaining new useful features ].

We can join these sentences together with and and then factor out repeated material:

​1. [ [ Android may affect the system ... ] and [ Android may help in obtaining ... features ] ].
​2. Android [ [ may affect the system ... ] and [ may help in obtaining ... features ] ].
​3. Android may [ [ affect the system ... ] and [ help in obtaining ... features ] ].

All of these sentences are grammatical.

To put it another way, we can talk about deleting repeated material:

​1. Android may affect the system ... and Android may help in obtaining ... features.
​2. Android may affect the system ... and Android may help in obtaining ... features.
​3. Android may affect the system ... and Android may help in obtaining ... features.

We can remove Android and may because they're repeated.

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  • this rule is also suitable for "have". Can I alter the following sentence "I have completed my paper and have written your name on it" like this: I have completed my work and written your name on it. @snailplane ?
    – Hakan
    Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 16:18
  • @Hakan Yes, that's fine.
    – user230
    Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 16:29

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