May... negative contration and tag
Does modal MAY have a negative contration?
I've seen MAYN'T but is seems odd to me...
And whats its corresponding question tag?
He may help you, ___|__ he'
4 Answers
Thank you very much for yout comments!
I agree that it's archaic, as well as sounding vaguely British, and it sounds unnatural in modern American English.
If the speaker wants to confirm his assumption (that "he" may do something) with the listener, the speaker can say "He may help you, don't you think'" But in natural speech we rarely, if ever, use such a confirmation after a clause that includes "may."
mayn't would fit in your blank just fine, but as you see, it's flagged as archaic. I've never heard anyone talk that way. (It's probably not archaic in the true sense, but as the distinction between can / may has all but disappeared in spoken language, so has the use of mayn't.)
Look at the "Usage Note" at the bottom of this web page:
may·n't (mnt, mnt)
Contraction of may not.
.Come and enjoy yourself, but in order that my brothers mayn't see you, put this band round your waist and then you'll be invisible.
"I mayn't be able to get away till after milking," she sniffed, "but I don't want to miss it.
The Golden Road by Montgomery, Lucy Maud View in context
"--"More shame for him," cries Honour: "you are to go to bed to him, and not master: and thof a man may be a very proper man, yet every woman mayn't think him handsome alike.
The use seems to be rather old fashioned.
mayn't
(archaic) may not
As a tag, I would use: .., may he not.
