XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: HenHanna@dev.null   
      
   On Wed, 25 Sep 2024 22:26:33 +0000, HenHanna wrote:   
      
   > On Wed, 25 Sep 2024 19:37:42 +0000, Marius_Hancu wrote:   
   >   
   >> FWIW:   
   >>   
   >> https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=what+might+have   
   been%2C+what+may+have+been&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3   
   >>   
   >> Best.   
   >> --   
   >> Marius Hancu   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >           i go camping with friends   
   >           and there is a problem   
   >                  (sudden illness,   or someone almost drowns)   
   >   
   > Afterwards  i  remember....   
   >   
   >   
   >       What might have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.   
   >   
      
   this is the typical  Counterfactual sentence.   
      
   >   
   >       What may have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.   
   >   
   >   
      
   There was no problem for me,   
                (and apparently for everyone else)   
      
                but a friend (in the group) was secretly   
                  going thru a crisis.   
      
        (perceptual difference)   
      
      What may have been a thoroughly-pleasant, great weekend for me   
             was certainly not so for Bill.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)