My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

may do as you ask, but then again I may not ).
May or might? Can or could?
Strictly speaking, may and can operate  in  the  present  tense,  might  and  could  in
the past or in the conditional (see
here
).
Can you
lend me
a
tenner?
Do you have the money?
Could
you lend
me a
tenner?
Would you be so very kind as to entrust me with this sum,
secure in the knowledge that I shall pay it back in the
fullness of time?
However,  this  is  another  distinction  that  is  beginning  to  be  lost  in  modern-day
speech and writing.
Can  /could  also  indicate  capability  or  possibility,  whereas  may  /might  grant  us
permission to do something.
Can I drive
your Rolls-
Royce?
Well, yes, if your feet can reach the pedals and you
understand the concept of a steering wheel.
May I drive
your Rolls-
Royce?
Over my dead body.
Most  people  in  the  English-speaking  world  seem  to  have  had  a  schoolteacher

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who, in response to the question Can I go to the loo? , would raise an eyebrow
and say, I don’t know – can you?