'should' vs 'may'

Question

Could you tell me what the difference is between "He should be French"  and "He may be French"?Thank you.

Deadrat · Accepted Answer

should: it is fitting that
may: it is possible that

Lucas21c · Answer

Could you give me some circumstances or short texts including each of the above sentences?

Deadrat · Answer

Suppose you know someone who calls himself Jacques, wears berets, smokes Gauloises, drinks wine with his lunch, loves Jean Luc Godard films, pronounces "r" sounds as though he's being strangled, and thinks Jerry Lewis is funny.

You don't know him, so you venture to say, "He may be French." That is, you're not entirely sure where he was born, but the evidence points to the distinct possibility that he's from France.

Now let's say that you do know him, and in fact, you know his real name is Jack and that he's from Bayonne, but it's Bayonne, New Jersey. Now you can say, "He should be French," meaning that he's not but he's adopted French manners so thoroughly that it would be fitting for him to be from France.

'should' vs 'may'

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