Mary wrote recently to ask whether "May you" is correct, as in "May you please get me a piece of paper?" Mary's daughter's teacher insists the children say "May you please" rather than "May I please have."
Michael wrote today encouraging (almost haranguing) me to tell readers they must not begin a sentence with a conjunction. Apparently he believes a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence is a dose of poison to the English language.
To Michael and to Mary's daughter's teacher I say:
Show me the manual!
Who besides that teacher believes "May you" is correct and "May I" is wrong? Who besides Michael believes conjunctions such as and and but are wrong at the beginning of a sentence in standard business writing?
Show me the manual. Where are the highly regarded style guides that support their positions? The Chicago Manual of Style? The Gregg Reference Manual? Garner's Modern American Usage? The Associated Press Stylebook? The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications? Which ones?
I know Michael, who referred to himself as "DR," had strong feelings about his view. He used all-capital letters for these words in his message: MORE, NEVER, WANT, PROPERLY, PLEASE, DEATH ("of entire languages"), ESSENTIAL, NOT, CORRECT, CANNOT, START. But passion is not enough. (There! I had the nerve to start a sentence with a conjunction when talking about him.) One also has to have business language experts on one's side.
In the movie Jerry Maguire, the athlete played by Cuba Gooding Jr. shouts "Show me the money!" He won't regain faith in Jerry, his agent, unless he has evidence of the money coming in.
I say, "Show me the manual!" and I hope you will too. Do not take people's strongly felt positions about language on faith. And let's not let them boss us around on our language playground unless they have true authority to do so.
Yes, I just started another sentence with a conjunction. Do you feel the language dying? No, neither do I.
Lynn
Syntax Training
Excellent advice with entertaining execution. Nicely done.
Posted by: Amy | June 01, 2008 at 04:35 AM
that is weird. my daughter - who is 5 - does the same thing. she didn't get it at preschool or at home. i didn't know adults also said this!
Posted by: mcc | June 01, 2008 at 05:49 AM
May can only be used in a polite request if it is followed by I, first person. For example "May I borrow your pen"?
Posted by: Victoria Shepherd | September 21, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Victoria, "may" is also used correctly with other subjects. For example:
--May Crista borrow the car?
--May we eat outside?
--May he have your phone number?
Posted by: Lynn | September 23, 2008 at 01:56 PM
Hey I am confused.
May you please send me the report.
Is that wrong or correct
Posted by: Partson | July 26, 2011 at 04:23 AM
Partson, I believe you are asking whether "May you please" is correct. It is not correct in American English. Try one of these instead:
"Would you please send me the report?" (a request)
"Would you please send me the report." (less a request, more a directive)
"May I please have the report?" (a request)
I hope I have answered your question.
Lynn
Posted by: Lynn Gaertner-Johnston | July 30, 2011 at 10:20 PM
Ok, now I'm even more confused. I have an associate that uses the phrase "may you" instead of "could you" or "would you", which just seems wrong. It appears though that you are endorsing her phraseology, which consists of requests like this:
"May you send me a copy of your specifications?"
"May you prepare a quotation for Joe and copy me on it when sent?"
"May you call me when you get a chance?"
Those just seem gratingly obvious as incorrect and fundamentally wrong, but it appears from your column you are suggesting that "may you" can be used interchangeably with "can you", "would you", or "will you" in a request to another party.
Posted by: Mikel | September 26, 2011 at 09:39 PM
Mikel, I am not endorsing "May you."
"May you" is not standard American English.
Lynn
Posted by: Lynn Gaertner-Johnston | September 26, 2011 at 09:48 PM