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I did an English test and there was a question which made me really confused.

You may not take this trip.

In the sentence above, may not can be substituted by:

  1. You are prohibited to take this trip
  2. You are not allowed to take this trip
  3. You can not take this trip

Which one is the right answer: 1, 2 or 3?

Thank you!

DW256
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Mariana Gualdi
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    "May" and "can" have been a problem since forever. Certainly in informal communications they are roughly equivalent, with "may" being a bit more polite. About all one can say with much certainty is that it's rare to do much canning in May. – Hot Licks May 15 '20 at 14:28
  • The auxiliary may can suggest potential ("You may have won something") or permission ("You may not leave your boots in the hall"). The problem is, the term is somewhat ambiguous, e.g., "He may not attend the party" can be used in either sense. – Robusto May 15 '20 at 14:28
  • That's a stupid test question because the meaning of the sentence changes depending on context and tone. 1, 2, and 3 are all correct. And 1 and 2 are identical in meaning. – sam-pyt May 15 '20 at 14:30
  • Can not means something quite different than cannot. I can't tell if you're confusing the two or not. Of the three sentences in the question, however, only the second looks typical to me. The third is syntactical, but I don't think it means what's intended. And the first is altogether wrong with the use of prohibited *to take*. – Jason Bassford May 15 '20 at 14:33
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    Also, "prohibited from taking", not "prohibited to take". The problem with tests is that a great many of them are simply badly written. – Andrew Leach May 15 '20 at 14:35
  • Yeah, it seems like this test was written by someone who doesn't know English very well. "can be substitute for" should be "can be a substitute for" – Barmar May 15 '20 at 15:41
  • Of the thee, #3 preserves the ambiguous wording best. However, maybe there’s a #4 “none of the above” - textually replacing the two words “may not” with a whole sentence produces a mess. – Lawrence May 15 '20 at 16:33
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    The bottom line is that English modals like may, can, should, are used in multiple ways. 'You may not take this trip' either means 'You are barred from taking this trip' or 'There is a possibility that you won't actually take this trip'. Of the answers provided, (1) is ungrammatical, and (3) is a rarefied way of saying 'You are not compelled to take this trip'. (As mentioned above, 'can not' and 'cannot or can't' are quite different; also, 'you can ...' is often used conversationally for 'you are allowed to'.) So only (2) is available. – Edwin Ashworth May 15 '20 at 16:40

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