May you....

Hi,

When asking a question or making a request, what are your opinions of using the phrase "may you"?

I am referring mainly to requests such as “May you pass me the salt?”, or something along those lines.

The reason I ask is that my girlfriend, who speaks with an RP accent, was recently told by someone that it is wrong to use “may you…” in this context.

I’m not an RP speaker and would never use “may you” like this, but is it wrong or merely old fashioned / overly polite?

Thanks.

<I am referring mainly to requests such as “May you pass me the salt?”, or something along those lines. >

"May you" is not used in that context. "Could you" is normal.

"May you" is found in mostly-frozen, somewhat dated, expressions.

May you ever hold your peace.
May you be blessed with many children.
May your God go with you.

My English teacher always asked "May I clean the board?".

What about this one, should it be "Can I clean the board?" instead?

"May I" is still used fairly frequently where I live, but it is really "May you..." that I would like clarification on.

"May I" is still very commonplace amongst middle-aged and older individuals here in formal and semiformal speech, while it has been largely replaced by "could I" and "can I" in the speech of younger individuals here except in very formal speech. However, I rarely hear "may you" in use by anyone here no matter their age outside of such fixed phrases (even though I frequently hear "you may" in the same sorts of contexts as those in which I hear "may I", so this is more a matter of word order than the use of "may" itself).

>><<it is really "May you..." that I would like clarification on.>>

I don't think *"may you pass me the salt?" is possible here; it sounds like your asking if he's allowed to pass the salt. I don't know about other places, but I've never heard anyone say this.<<

That also sounds quite weird to me myself; at least here, that would be "could you pass me the salt?" here even for middle-aged and older people.

<My English teacher always asked "May I clean the board?".

What about this one, should it be "Can I clean the board?" instead? >

For giving and asking for permission:

may I = do I have YOUR permission
can I = is it allowed

May I smoke in here = do/will you allow me to smoke
can I smoke in here = is it allowed/do the rules permit it

.......

If you hear any other definitions, it will be from prescriptivists who have no idea of what they are talking about.

;-)

<You're calling Travis and I prescriptivists? 'Can' is used by essentially everyone in North America to ask permission, eg. "Can I go to the bathroom" is not asking whether I am physically capable of doing so, but rather whether I'm allowed.>

Sorry Josh, when I said that I meant that one should be wary of those who insist that "can" cannot be used to asked for permission. It can, it is, and it always has been.

<<Sorry Josh, when I said that I meant that one should >>>

That was me.