How to use “may as well” or “might as well”

English tip# 3: “may as well” or “might as well” are different from “as well.”

Maybe you think this is no tip because you often use the phrase “as well” in your daily conversations. However, sometimes, it is used as part of another phrase. Do you understand the phrases “may as well” or “might as well”?

The problem is our ignorance. Just because we are familiar with a word or phrase, we try to make some sense of that in a particular conversation. We basically invent meanings based on the context and our previous experiences, and we get happy and tell ourselves “Ok, this should be what it means. Now, everything makes sense.” You just don’t know you have easily misunderstood the situation.

If you have a good deal of experience in English environments, you certainly have heard either of the two phrases “may as well” or “might as well.” You may just not remember that now.

Let’s get started.

As you certainly know “as well” means “in addition to something.” In a more formal English, we tend to use “also.” Basically, that is the phrase we use instead of “too.”

That was easy, ha? However, there are two other phrases containing “as well.” They are common in English, and they are different from “as well.” These two phrases are:

May as well or Might as well

“May as well” or “might as well” both mean “should.” As a matter of fact, they are used to give a suggestion to someone because what you are suggesting seems to be the best choice, and the person should not do something else. Also, it sometimes means the person is not willing to do what you are suggesting. “May as well” and “might as well” are the same and you can use them interchangeably.

In a conversation with someone, you might understand the above sentence as this:

Because the elevators are out, the manager may also submit the replacement order. (As if someone else has also submitted the same order)

However, the above example means the manager should submit the order to replace the elevators because there doesn’t seem to be a better option. Remember that although we said these phrases’ meaning is close to “should,” they are a little different from “should.” Most synonymous words have some differences; that’s why we use them in different situations.

Did you know this? If yes, wait for our next tip. You might not know the next one.

Remember your best English learning companion is a good dictionary like Oxford Dictionary that can answer most of your questions.

For now, go to our blog posts’ page and read some other tips we have shared with you. You can also check out the list of our ESL/ general English courses here.

Happy learning!