modal verbs - What is the difference between 'can', 'could', 'may' and 'might'?


I'm a native English speaker and I've been doing some research into English grammar for a programme I'm working on. However, on looking into modal verbs, I've only just come to appreciate how subtle and complicated they are.


What is the difference between these sentences? What possible different response might one have to each?




  • I can go to the cinema tonight.

  • I could go to the cinema tonight.

  • I may go to the cinema tonight.

  • I might go to the cinema tonight.



Granted, the first of these looks more like a statement of ability or possibility than the three that follow. But in what ways does it differ from the others, since all suggest ability and possibility? And crucially, what distinguishes the other three.


Perhaps it's a matter of tone, of context, of the speaker... The question may appear quite simple but I haven't found a satisfactory answer elsewhere.


One answer looked quite useful in that it covered levels of confidence and certainty but it was talking about the potential state of something rather than the possibility for the person who is speaking. Are there any differences in that sense?


Another looked at these verbs used in question form (e.g., differences between 'Can I...?' and 'May I...?') but I'm not so interested in that for now.


Any thoughts appreciated.




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