POSSIBILITY

We use may/mei/, might /mait/, and could/kud/ to talk about present or future possibility.

 There is someone at the door. It may be Sarah .

 We’re not sure what we are going to do tomorrow. We might go to beach.
 Where’s Simon?. He could be in the living room.

Might is normally a little less sure than may. Could is normally less sure than may or might.

+ + + may + + might + could

We use the negatives may not and might not (contraction:mightn’t) with this meaning, but not could not.

 Simon may not be in the living room.

 We might not go to beach.

We can use may/might/could + have + past participle to talk about possibility in the past.

 Where was Sally last night? I think she might have been in the cinema.
 Peter is late. He might have missed his train.
 I can’t find my wallet anywhere. You could have left it at home.
 She walked straight past me without saying hello. She might not have seen you.

We also use could and might (but not may) with have + past participle to say that something was possible in the
past but did not happen.

 I forgot to lock my car last night. Someone could have stolen it.
 You are stupid to try to climb that tree. You might have killed yourself.

MORE EXAMPLES:

 Rina mungkin terlambat hari ini.

 Rina might be late today.
 Kita mungkin sarapan dulu sebelum berangkat
 We may have breakfast before leaving.
 Pesawat mungkin tiba lebih awal.
 The plane may arrive early.
 --------
 Rina mungkin tdk tiba tepat waktu.
 Rina mightn’t arrive on time.
 Kita mungkin tdk sabar menunggu lebih lama.
 We may not be patient to wait a little longer.
 John mungkin pergi ke Jakarta dua hari yang lalu.
 John may have gone to Jakarta two days ago.
 Anda mungkin tidak memberikan penjelasan yang cukup kemarin.
 You might not have given enough explanation yesterday.
We use can to talk about theoretical possibility.

Someone can learn to swim

We use could to talk about theoritical possibility in the past.

My brother could be very horrible when he was a child.

We can use can to mean sometimes.

 My brother can be very nice.

 It can be cold in England.

We use may, might or could, not can, to say that perhaps something will happen in the future or that something is
true at the moment of speaking.

 It may rain later. (Not it can rain later.)

 Where’s Ken? He could be outside. (Not: he can be outside.)