CAN or MAY? Which is correct?

There are a number of simple but confusing aspects of grammar that many speakers of English are worried about. Unprofessional advice from teachers and peers with little or outdated knowledge in English further worsens the situation.


Let's take an example of such two controversial grammatical terms: CAN and MAY. Most of the speakers of English are, of course, familiar with the meanings and basic usage of these two words.


But the confusing question is, are CAN and MAY interchangeable when it comes to asking or granting permission?


The answer is 'YES'!
Many people think that CAN is used only to show 'ability/capability', and they argue that it is wrong to replace MAY with CAN in a request like,
'May I ask you a few personal questions?'.


In fact the majority of modern grammarians and successful writers are nowadays use both CAN and MAY to ask or grant permission though a damned few still oppose it! So, you may use either "May I ask you a few personal questions?" or "Can I ask you a few personal questions?" as both have exactly the same meaning and are acceptable in modern English.


The only difference between them in this context (permission/request) is that MAY is a little more polite than CAN. Therefore, try to use CAN in informal situations (at home, with friends etc.) and MAY in formal ones (in an interview, an official discussion etc.)

CHILLAX! I'm on a STAYCATION!!

Good Evening Guys!

 Have you ever defriended someone, or organized a tweetup? Blown on a vuvuzela or bought something bargainous? If so, the Oxford Dictionary of English would like to recognize your achievements.

The World Cup, credit crunch and social networking have all made a recent mark on the way we talk. The Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) —not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) — is duly paying attention. The ODE is a dictionary based on how language is used in everyday life, and has 200 new phrases in its latest edition out today.

The dictionary, which was first published in 1998 with this being its third edition, now includes words such as frenemy (a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike), LBD (Little Black Dress), cheeseball (someone or something lacking taste, style or originality) and bromance (a close but non-sexual relationship between two men.

"The dictionary reflects the way the language has changed over the last few years," Catherine Soanes, head of online dictionaries at Oxford University Press, tells TIME. "We run the biggest language research program in the world with an online database of over two billion words."

So, do you feel it's time to chillax (calm down and relax), take a chill pill (a notional pill taken to make someone calm), or maybe even take a staycation (a holiday taken in one's home country)? Then why not curl up with some steampunk (a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery), or even the new Oxford Dictionary of English, which NewsFeed is more than happy to call a national treasure (something regarded as emblematic of a nation's cultural heritage).




Jacob Nova English Campus
Source: Internet (http://newsfeed.time.com/)