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'May have' vs. 'Can have'



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Can sb check my letter, please! | "before the start of the semester" or "before the start of semeste
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'May have' vs. 'Can have' Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:46 am  'May have' vs. 'Can have'
 

Dear Friends,

This is my first question in this forum

I am very confused about the usage of 'may have / can have'. I checked almost all the grammar books. All the grammar books says that 'may have' used to say about a past action. My doubt is about the following sentences.

'You may have got thinner by the time you get back'
'You may not have reached there by morning'

I feel this is about a future thing.

Same thing about 'can't have'. Please tell me the meaning of the following sentence.

'We can't have finished the job by next sunday'

'I can't have raised the money by then'

'You can't have kept it a secret for a long.

Kindly help me.
truebytes
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Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 9

'May have' vs. 'Can have' Sun Apr 29, 2007 18:37 pm  'May have' vs. 'Can have'
 

May I ask where these examples come from? They seem wrong to me but I can't put my fingers on them. Can you give these in a context (like in a paragraph)?
diverhank
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'May have' vs. 'Can have' Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:17 am  'May have' vs. 'Can have'
 

diverhank wrote:
May I ask where these examples come from? They seem wrong to me but I can't put my fingers on them. Can you give these in a context (like in a paragraph)?

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I got it from a spoken english book. Its not a paragraph. I asked the same doubt in other forum and got the reply that its future perfect. They said since we can use 'may + V' in present and future, 'may have + Ved' can be used in future perfect.

Can you please check and reply to me.

Thanks in advance
truebytes
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Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 9

may/can Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:43 am  may/can
 

Hi Truebytes,

There seems to be some kind of confusion here. I think the best way is to look at the underlying meanings of 'may' and 'can'. 'May' has the sense of possibility or permission and 'can' the sense of possibilty together with ability.

We say: I may swim = I have permission to swim or I possibly will swim but I haven't decided yet.

We say: I can swim = I am able to swim or I have the ability to swim.

If we then change the infinitive 'swim' into a perfect infinitive (have swum), the meanings change.

We say: I may have swum along that river when I was younger = It is possible that I did this when I was younger - I can't really remember.

We do not say: I can have swum because this makes no sense as it suggests uncertainty and certainty at the same time.

It is possible to say: I could have swum, meaning it would have been possible but I didn't do it or I can't have swum or couldn't have swum, meaning it's not possible that I did or it would not have been possible if I had tried but I didn't try.

Alan
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may/can Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:14 am  may/can
 

Dear Alan,

Many thanks for the help.

Still I am confused with the below sentences. Can't we use 'may' & 'can' in future perfect ? How can we tell the thing that may happend in the future which we are not sure.

'You may have got thinner by the time you get back'
'You may not have reached there by morning'

'We can't have finished the job by next sunday'
'I can't have raised the money by then'
'You can't have kept it a secret for a long.

Please help me
truebytes
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Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 9

'May have' vs. 'Can have' Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:27 am  'May have' vs. 'Can have'
 

Hi,

These two are possible:

Quote:
'You may have got thinner by the time you get back'
'You may not have reached there by morning'

The first means: it is possible that you will have got thinner ...

The second means: it is possible you will not have reached ...

These are problematical:

Quote:
'We can't have finished the job by next Sunday'
'I can't have raised the money by then'
'You can't have kept it a secret for a long.

You would have to say:

The first one: We will not have been able to finish ...
The second one: I will not have been able to raise ....

The third one needs to be written as: You would not have been able to keep a secret for long. (We can either say for long or for a long time)

Alan
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'May have' vs. 'Can have' Mon Apr 30, 2007 13:42 pm  'May have' vs. 'Can have'
 

Dear Alan,

Thanks very much for the help.

It was being confused me for some time.

Thanks again.

With warm regds
Benny
truebytes
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Joined: 29 Apr 2007
Posts: 9

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