When do you use 'might' for tentative suggestion?

Example: "We might want to add a cache here, but let's measure first."

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Modal verb

might

Q: When do you use 'might' for weaker possibility than 'may'?

Example: "The tests might fail if the database is slow — let's add a retry just in case."

might + base verb (no 's', no 'to')

Uses

Weaker possibility than 'may'

“The tests might fail if the database is slow — let's add a retry just in case.”

Tentative suggestion

“We might want to add a cache here, but let's measure first.”

Common mistakes

✕“It mights break in production.”

✓“It might break in production.”

✕“She might to join the call late.”

✓“She might join the call late.”

Choose the correct modal

Pick the modal that fits the meaning of each sentence.

The tests fail if the database is slow — let's add a retry just in case.

We want to add a cache here, but let's measure first.

Spot the correctly formed sentence

Only one option follows the rules for modal verbs. Pick it.

Previous: may Next modal: must

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Written by

Roxana Lafuente

Lingua-e's founder

Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.