A friend of mine caught me saying, “He might could…” and pointed out my grammatical error.
I was unaware that it was bad grammar. And she couldn’t tell me what was wrong with it, just that it was wrong. So I did a bit of searching.
“Might could” is a double modal. According to Word of the Day, it is acceptable, although its usage is typically confined to the Southern U.S.
Interestingly this construction is also common in northern England and Scotland, which is where the bulk of Southerners lived before immigrating to this area. Take a look at this map that displays the geographical concentration of surnames in the U.S.
Pretty neat, right? (Please tell me I’m not the only geeky person who is fascinated by this kind of thing!) I might could post some more if you like this 🙂
By Kristen H.
LOL….been hearing a lot of “might could”s recently 🙂 Definitely a southern thang 😉
Oh yeah! It’s definitely a southern thang:)
Cool post. I was taught good english grammar back in French school, so I knew right away what was wrong with it. I loved what you found out though.
You’re right Kristen, that is pretty fascinating! Keep it coming! 🙂
That is interesting. It is not often you actually learn something new. Thanks for the post.