Review

Hi, guys, how are you?

At this class, teacher made a review about perfect modals. As it isn't an easy issue, I thought that would be nice to share with you this site I've found. You'll see some good explanations that agree what our teacher said. I don't know, maybe to think everytime in their definitions isn't the better way to learn. I rather to read many examples and try to memorize their contexts. Well, that's my way to study, of course. I never saw anyone to use 'might' meaning 'poderia' in the present perfect. It's often to use it as 'pode'. That simplifies its understanding, you know. Because, when it's necessary to say 'poderia' you probably have to use 'could' instead of 'might'.

For instance, see the explanation given at the end of this page. An user asked the difference between possibility and probability and the page's moderator answered that when you use 'must' you're sure about your conclusion and when you use 'might' you're thinking of something like "Well, that's possible too".

See these examples:

1. "They might have arrived now."
2. "They may have arrived hours ago."

In the first example, it's pretty weird to think that the sentence means: "Eles poderiam ter chegado agora.". If you wanna say it you probably would say: "They could have arrived now." Right? So, the first sentence means: "Eles podem ter chegado agora."
The second one is similar. If you wanna say "Eles poderiam ter chegado horas atrás." you need to use 'could' instead of 'may'.

Well, that's what I think about it. If you think different, please, tell me. See you.