Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s Words with English with Languissimo® which will help you improve your vocabulary so that you can communicate better in English.

My name is Vanessa Rocket. I’m the founder and CEO of Languissimo®.

Today, I will cover the difference between “May (the noun)” and “May (the auxiliary verb)”.

-          “May” (as a noun) is the fifth month of the year. Months of the year in English are capitalized. 

The preposition “in” is used before a month. For example: in May, in September, etc.

When giving the date, use ordinal numbers: “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth”, etc. For example, today is May 1st (first); tomorrow will be May 2nd (second).

A common expression with the noun “May” is “Mayday”. It is used when a plane or a boat is having problems and human lives are at risk. You hear this expression a lot in action or war movies.

-          “May” (as an auxiliary verb) is used to ask permission. For example, “may I be excused?”; “may I open the window please?”

It is also used in a context where there is a chance something is going to happen. For example, “it may rain”. It means that there is a chance that it’s going to rain but it’s not certain.

A common question with “may” is “how may I help you?” when you visit a store for example.

Some Practice Questions

-          What day was it yesterday?

-          May I ask you when your birthday is?

Ta da! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Subscribe to English with Languissimo®, practice, take care and have a great Wednesday! Big hugs 😊