may have/ could have hit

Question

Hello, the following question is from a test. The answer according to the Key is "may have hit." Is it really correct? Both can be used for past possibilty I guess. Help please! Thank you

Hey, you may have hit the tree.I want you to be careful.!

Hey, you could have hit the tree.I want you to be careful!

Pieanne · Accepted Answer

"May have hit the tree" doesn't make much sense to me. "Could have hit" makes sense if the tree is a very sensitive one, meaning you could have hurt it.

What makes sense to me is "Put down that bat! You could hurt your sister!"/"What did you do with that bat? You could have hurt your sister!"

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Hey, you may have hit the tree.I want you to be careful.!

Referring in this way to a past action, you need to say

Hey, you might have hit the tree. I want you to be careful!

Best wishes, Clive

CalifJim · Answer

The example is about an unfulfilled possibility in the past. What happened is known. ("you" did not hit the tree.) "might have" and "could have" are the usual ways of expressing this.
"may have" is about (among other things) a possibility in the present that something happened in the past. Whether it happened is unknown. (It is possible that you hit the tree. It is possible that you did not hit the tree.)

It is theoretically possible that the first example is correct, but it requires too much in the way of mental gymnastics to see it as a better answer than the first.

Rational test makers would have chosen a different ending had they wanted "may have" to be the answer -- something like the following:

"You may have hit the tree. Let's go over to the tree and take a look and find out if you did."

Of course, the problem here is that "might have" and "could have" are equally good in that context.

CJ

Pieanne · Answer

<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/7.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/7.gif' alt='Emotion: tongue tied'/>  (I still don't find the original examples very convincing... )

Anonymous · Answer

funny, Ive always been told that may and might have no difference in using...

MrPedantic · Answer

Pieanne (I still don't find the original examples very convincing... )

After his first attempt to reverse his father's classic '68 GT500 into the drive:

1. May have

"How did I do?"

"Not very well at all...In fact, I think you may have hit the tree."

2. Could have

<screech of brakes>

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, reversing at 30 mph? You could have hit that tree!"

MrP

Hly2004 · Answer

Two examples:

Watch out! You might have broken the glass cups!

(There is a possibility that you may broke the glass cups)

What I pity! I could have done it!

(I have the ability to do it, But I didn't do it)

Pieanne · Answer

MrPedantic
Pieanne
(I still don't find the original examples very convincing... )

After his first attempt to reverse his father's classic '68 GT500 into the drive:

1. May have

"How did I do?"

"Not very well at all...In fact, I think you may have hit the tree."

2. Could have

<screech of brakes>

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, reversing at 30 mph? You could have hit that tree!"

MrP

Thank you, MrP!

That's crystal clear.

(I don't know why I was only thinking of guns, which, of course, didn't do the trick

)

MrPedantic · Answer

Ah yes! He would have had to have been a spectacularly bad shot, to miss a tree. (Though they do have a tendency to move.)

MrP

CalifJim · Answer

A scholar of Shakespeare I see.  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

may have/ could have hit

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