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'May well' expresses high probability; 'might well' expresses reasonable possibility with slightly more uncertainty.
Side-by-side comparison
"May well" expresses a fairly high probability: there are good reasons to think something will happen or is true. It is more confident than a plain "may".
He may well be the best player on the team, but he needs to work on his attitude.
She studied so hard she may well get a perfect score on the exam tomorrow.
This rain may well last all weekend, the forecast looks pretty bad.
"Might well" expresses a more tentative or hypothetical possibility. "Might" already implies less certainty than "may", and "well" adds a slight extra hedge.
If you skip breakfast every day, you might well feel tired by midmorning.
It might well be faster to walk, traffic is terrible at this hour.
She might well change her mind again, she has already done it three times.
Common mistake
"May be well the case" is wrong: "well" goes between the modal and the infinitive. Correct: "may well be the case". And "may well to be" is also wrong: after modal + well comes the bare infinitive.
Trick to remember it
- •Position of "well": modal + WELL + bare infinitive.
- •"May well prove / might well become / could well turn out." Never at the end of the modal or before it.
Quick rule
- •"May well" = very probably (high probability with good reason).
- •"Might well" = could well be (reasonable possibility).
- •Structure: modal + WELL + bare infinitive.
Did you know?
The MODAL + WELL combination is what linguists call "epistemic boosting": the adverb WELL does not change the type of meaning of the modal, but increases the degree of probability it expresses. It is comparable to how "very" intensifies an adjective: "big" vs "very big." Similarly, "may" is possible, "may WELL" is quite probable.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
You _____ be right about that. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
If we leave early, we _____ arrive before the traffic gets bad.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
"Can" expresses ability or capacity (to be able to do something); "may" expresses formal permission or possibility (something might happen).
'Could' expresses reasonable possibility or polite permission; 'might' expresses more remote or uncertain possibility.
'Going to' expresses a prior plan or evidence-based prediction; 'will' expresses a spontaneous decision or general prediction.
"May" expresses higher probability or formal permission; "might" expresses lower probability or is the past tense of "may".
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy