51. Making Concessions with “May”

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Giving two opposing facts, one with “may” and one with “but”, suggests the second has more importance for the writer

WAYS OF USING “may”

Sometimes the use of a word or grammar structure is best understood not in terms of what it “means”, but rather in terms of what it “does”. There are some uses of the word may that certainly fall into this category. At elementary level we learn how may can facilitate requesting (May I … ?), wishing (May you/he/they …) and giving permission (You/she may …). Elsewhere within these pages, there are various posts analysing uses of a more advanced nature (see especially 237. Auxiliary Verbs in Professional Communication).

“Making concessions” is perhaps a rather surprising use of may in professional writing. A concession is a statement through which writers accept the truth of something said by another person, even though it does not support their own belief (the word “concession” comes from the verb CONCEDE, which means “accept unwillingly”). For a may statement to be of this kind, it must usually have an accompanying statement that supports the opposing belief. Here is an example:

(a) Coal may be a cheap fuel, but it harms the environment.

The first half of this statement supports the view that coal fuel is desirable, whereas the second half supports the opposite view – the undesirability of coal fuel – and associates it with the writer.

In this post I wish to examine the components and language of concession statements like (a). For advice on when they might be used, see 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing in Formal Contexts and 168. Ways of Arguing 2. For advice on other ways to express opposing points, see 277. Advantages & Disadvantages.

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THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CONCESSIVE “may” SENTENCES

Concessive may is nearly always used in combination with a later but or one of its synonyms. The words after may and but must give two facts supporting opposite opinions (that coal in [a] is desirable / undesirable as a fuel). The opinions are not actually expressed in the statement with may… but… , but are merely implied by the two given facts. They may be stated explicitly either before or after (see 222. Information Orders in Texts, #4), but the ability of may… but… to clearly convey them means they often remain implicit.

Because the use of may in sentences like (a) often associates the point after it with other people than the writer, it can be considered an indicator of “multiple speakers” in its text (see 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text). In addition, it gives a polite early warning that the writer might disagree with the opinion it is helping to suggest (see 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing in Formal Contexts).

The role of but is to signal that an opposite opinion is being implied and that it has the writer’s support. It is the main means of recognizing that the opinion of the writer of (a) is against coal fuel. It and its synonyms can be reinforced by adding still. If a writer wanted to give the facts of sentence (a) without indicating a personal opinion, it would be possible to link them together like this:

(b) ONE THE ONE HAND, coal is a cheap fuel. ON THE OTHER, it harms the environment.

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PARAPHRASES OF “may … but …”

The words may and but in a concession sentence are often paraphrased in a wide variety of ways.

1. Paraphrases of May

Most of the following are able to stand alone as a separate sentence, so that they can be followed by either a comma and the conjunction but or a full stop and a connector like however.

IT IS TRUE THAT coal is a cheap fuel…

IT MAY BE THAT coal is a cheap fuel…

IT HAS TO BE ADMITTED/CONCEDED that coal is a cheap fuel…

IT CANNOT BE DENIED that coal is a cheap fuel…

The low cost of coal as a fuel CANNOT BE DENIED…

Coal is CERTAINLY (etc.) a cheap fuel…

Coal IS INDEED a cheap fuel…

THERE IS NO DOUBT/DISPUTE/DENYING (THAT) coal is a cheap fuel…

Also noteworthy is the expression …is/are all very well, which requires the inconvenient point to be in noun rather than statement form (see 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #2).

Certainly and indeed are adverbs of the “sentence” kind (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs), and hence can go at the start of their sentence as well as in the positions shown. They can be thought of as formal equivalents of yes (a word often found in spoken concessions). They are replaceable in written concession sentences with admittedly, definitely, no doubt, undeniably and undoubtedly. Other synonyms, such as truly, are not recommended in this use because they are not common there and are likely to sound inappropriate.

Certainly, definitely, undeniably and undoubtedly can be confusing in reading because they are also frequently used without a following but statement to indicate a strongly-held personal opinion (see 224. Asserting the Truth of what you Say). Readers hence need on encountering one of these words to keep an open mind about which of the two meanings is intended, and to stay alert for a following but or equivalent.

Note that indeed must be accompanied by the auxiliary verb DO (e.g. …does indeed cost less) unless the main verb is BE (as shown above) or one that already has a different auxiliary before it (BE, HAVE, will etc.).

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2. Paraphrases of But

The most common synonyms of but are connectors rather than conjunctions, so that the two halves of the concession statement have to be in separate sentences instead of one (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors). The main but synonyms are:

HOWEVER (connector)

NEVERTHELESS (connector)

EVEN SO (connector)

DESPITE THIS (connector)

ALL THE SAME (connector)

(AND) YET (conjunction)

A further option is the conjunction although placed at the very start (with no may and no later but). However, I feel that this might convey a slightly different meaning: suggesting that it is the writer who is the source of the inconvenient first fact rather than someone else.

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PRACTICE IN RECOGNISING CONCESSIONS

The greatest difficulty that concessions seem to give to English users who speak a different mother tongue is in recognising them while reading. Therefore, I offer for analysis a number of concessions in short reading texts (there is a similar exercise in my book Grammar Practice for Professional Writing).

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EXERCISE: Read each text below in order to discover (a) the writer’s opinion, and (b) the equivalents of may and but. Answers are given afterwards.

1. Hydro-electric dams do indeed produce clean renewable energy, but in the longer term they can have quite noticeable effects on their surrounding eco-systems.

2. There is no doubt that the purchase of a national lottery ticket requires a much higher proportion of a poor person’s overall wealth than a rich person’s. The social injustice inherent in this is obvious. Even so, national lotteries raise large amounts of money for social causes like sport and the arts, and they provide a very important highlight for those who participate, not to mention those who win.

3. Poorer countries struggling to achieve the level of development of the advanced economies may face numerous obstacles that were simply non-existent when the very first industrial revolutions were occurring. Some striking successes have nevertheless been observed among those who have actively pursued development-focussed policies.

4. Dramatic changes in the activity at the surface of the sun are certainly capable of raising the earth’s atmospheric temperatures, and yet the recently-observed gradual rise in global temperatures correlates very closely with human beings’ dramatically increased use of fossil fuels over the last hundred years.

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ANSWERS

1. Opinion = Hydro-electric dams are undesirable; Concession words = do indeed … but … .

2. Opinion = National lotteries are desirable; Concession words = There is no doubt that … Even so … .

3. Opinion = Development-focussed policies are desirable; Concession words = may … nevertheless … .

4. Opinion = Global warming is caused by human activity; Concession words = certainly … and yet … .

50. Right and Wrong Comma Places

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There are particular places where skilled English writers are still likely to wrongly add or drop a comma

THE DIFFICULTY OF COMMAS

Punctuation is rarely considered in writing courses for advanced learners of English. Yet many aspects of it seem to give uncertainty to even the most skilled academic and professional writers. Elsewhere in this blog punctuation particularly features in the posts 17. Colons versus Semi-Colons,  30. When to Write a Full Stop,  58. Optional Apostrophe Endings and 223. Uses of Hyphens. Question marks and quotation marks both feature in 127. When to Use Indirect Speech.

There is much to say about commas, perhaps because they have so many different uses. The normal approach is to list these uses. However, because this blog always aims to offer something slightly different, I wish to focus more on when commas should not be used than when they should. To start, though, it is useful to be briefly reminded of the main uses. We cannot just say that commas show a “pause”, since many pauses in English are signalled by either a different kind of punctuation or no punctuation at all (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud).

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THE MAIN COMMA USES

1. Separating listed items

Lists with and or or need a comma after each listed item except the last two. After the second-last item (before and/or) there is a choice:

(a) The “Old World” comprises Africa, Asia(,) and Europe.

Lists without and / or (adjectives before some nouns, any list before etc. or equivalent) have one comma after each item except the last):

(b) Archaeological investigations involve detailed, painstaking study.

For adjective lists without commas, see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #1. For equivalents of etc., see 1. Simple Example-Giving.

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2. Separating verbs linked by a conjunction

This happens particularly when the conjunction begins the sentence, before both of the linked verbs (see 25. Conjunction Positioning), e.g.: 

(c) IF you work hard, you will succeed.

When a conjunction is between two verbs, a comma is less likely except before conjunctions only usable in that position (and, but, so, (n)or, for, yet).

The verb-separating use is also common where the second verb is a participle without a conjunction (see 101. Add-on Participles), or an infinitive (see 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #5).

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3. Acting (alongside a second comma or a full stop) like brackets

Commas like this resemble paired brackets or dashes. They can surround individual and multi-word nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs (see 294. Parentheses) and also subject-verb combinations that would not normally be found by themselves as a separate sentence (see 183. Statements between Commas). When they are noun-like, they typically form a structure called “apposition” (see 77.  Pairing of Same-Meaning Nouns):

(d) Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, came to power by winning a war.

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COMMON ERRORS WITH COMMAS

One of the best-known comma errors is using them instead of full stops. This is not considered here, however, because there is a whole Guinlist post about it elsewhere (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop). Nor am I here repeating errors with for example (see 33. Complex Example-Giving) and relative pronouns (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). The comma errors I do wish to consider are as follows.

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1. Comma after a Long Subject

Verbs should not be separated from their subject by a comma (for advice on recognising subjects, see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices). Unnecessary commas tend to be added especially after long subjects, like the following: 

(e) The very last task at the end of the day was to lock the doors. 

The main word in this subject – the one “agreeing” with the verb was – is task; the other words make the meaning of task more exact. There is no reason to add a comma after day at the end of this long subject. This position is not one of the three main comma positions listed above.

Perhaps the reason why writers often feel a need to add a comma after a long subject is that in speaking we would normally pause there. This discrepancy between speech and writing is a good illustration of why looking for sentence pauses is an unreliable way to decide where to use a comma.

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2. Forgotten Second of Two Bracket-Like Commas

Here are some more examples of commas used like brackets: 

(f) Toyota, the largest car company in the world, is Japanese.

(g) The English, unlike the French, spread butter on their bread.

(h) There are a few grammar rules, however, that are easy to remember.

(i) Napoleon introduced many reforms, some of which endure today. 

The first three examples here have two commas bracketing the underlined words, while in (i) a full stop replaces the second comma because the bracketed words end the sentence. It is in sentences needing two commas that the second comma is likely to be forgotten. I use the word “forgotten” because I believe that most people who leave out the second comma do actually know that two commas are needed. A similar error occurs with quotation marks and brackets, which also usually come in pairs.

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3. Comma between “that” and Indirect Speech

A sentence where some writers might feel a need for a comma after that is: 

(j) Jones (2013, p. 34) argues that English comma usage is problematic. 

All of the words after that here are indirect speech (see 127. When to Use Indirect Speech). A comma is not normal after this kind of that because it is a conjunction, a kind of word that nearly always forbids a following comma (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors and 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”). In standard spoken English, there is not even a pause after that – any pause is likely to be before it rather than after.

A possible reason for the feeling that a comma ought to follow that is the influence of direct speech where the words inside quotation marks are separated from a speech verb by a comma without that.

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4. Unnecessary Comma before a List

Lists that are not their sentence’s main information sometimes need bracket-like commas around them (see 54. Sentence Lists 1: Incidental), but lists that are the main sentence point never do. They either have no preceding punctuation at all or, if the words introducing them are a possible complete sentence, a colon (see 17. Colons versus Semi-Colons).

In the following sentence, the words before the list (underlined) are not a possible sentence, so that no preceding punctuation is necessary:

(k) The traditional branches of engineering are mechanical, electrical and civil.

To make the underlined words here a possible complete sentence – necessitating a colon after them – they must begin Engineering has… or There are…, and include a number word like three or various (see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences).

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CORRECT COMMA USES THAT SEEM INCORRECT

Sometimes a comma comes between a subject and a verb, or after that, without being wrong. It is useful to understand how this can happen.

1. Correct Use between a Subject and a Verb

When a subject ends with bracketed information it needs a comma after it: 

(l) The twins, Antonio and Maria, were rewarded. 

The comma after Maria is possible because there is also a comma before Antonio, making Antonio and Maria bracketed. This means they are the same as the twins, so only two people are being mentioned (see 77. Apposition). Without the comma after Maria, the one after twins would become a listing one, making Antonio and Maria different from the twins, so that four people altogether would be indicated. For another example, see 288. Grammatical Subtleties, #3. 

Knowing about such possibilities can help in another way too. Consider this newspaper extract: 

(m) The improvement in UK business performance, increased government spending … . 

It is easy to believe the underlined words are the subject of the verb increased (meaning that business improvement caused government spending to increase). However, this must be wrong because of the comma. The correct interpretation is that all of (m) is an unfinished list. The word increased must therefore be a participle, used like an adjective to describe spending, and not a verb (see 52. Participles Placed Just After their Noun).

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2. Correct Use after “that”

Once again the bracketing use of commas has an effect. Consider this (bracketed words underlined): 

(n) Experts believe that, if regular exercise IS UNDERTAKEN, heart disease WILL BE less likely. 

The underlined words, being bracketed, need commas before and after. Because they also come directly after that, the first comma must go there. Not all types of bracketing are possible after that. The type shown above involves a conjunction (if) written before both of the verbs it joins (shown in capitals)¹. Another type of bracketing that is possible is around a preposition phrase (where there is no verb). You could thus exchange the underlined words above for with regular exercise.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE (COMMA USAGE)

Decide where commas are possible below. To help you, the comma types needed in each sentence, along with the order of their occurrence, are indicated by the letters A (= listing), B (= conjunction-associated) and C (= bracketing). Answers are given afterwards.

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1. When thought is given to the different possible means of transport particularly motor vehicles in villages towns and cities it seems obvious that cycling is by far the most sensible.  (C, A, B) 

2. Engaging in conversation consulting a dictionary or at any rate a phrasebook and doing grammar exercises are all important strategies for learning a foreign language and will it may not be a surprise to learn also develop other intellectual abilities.  (A, C, B, C) 

3. There is no evidence as far as one can tell that genetic factors are the main reason why human beings of a particular colour stature or body shape outperform other human beings in particular areas of expertise since environmental factors like upbringing and training which are very difficult to separate out are an alternative very plausible explanation.  (C, A, B, C, A)

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Answers

1. When thought is given to the different possible means of transport, particularly motor vehicles, in villages, towns(,) and cities, it seems obvious that cycling is by far the most sensible. 

2. Engaging in conversation, consulting a dictionary, or at any rate a phrasebook, and doing grammar exercises are all important strategies for learning a foreign language, and will, it may not be a surprise to learn, also develop other intellectual abilities. 

3. There is no evidence, as far as one can tell, that genetic factors are the main reason why human beings of a particular colour, stature(,) or body shape outperform other human beings in particular areas of expertise, since environmental factors(,) like upbringing and training, which are very difficult to separate out, are an alternative, very plausible explanation. 

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¹The combination that, if is a rare example of two conjunctions written next to each other.