Might Could

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

Susan from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hi, Susan. Welcome to the program.

Thanks.

What can we do for you today?

Well, I married, I am from the South, and I married a guy from just outside of New York City, and he used to make fun of one of my sayings that my sister and I have used for years, might could.

-huh. Now, how would you use that in a sentence?

Well, we might could go to the fair tonight, or we might could go to dinner.

And this Yankee’s making fun of you?

Yeah.

And how do you feel about that?

After a few years, I’ve just laughed it off.

Oh, he’s still making fun of you for it?

Actually, I’ve curved my use of the saying somewhat.

Have you really?

Yes.

Oh.

But occasionally I talk to my sister and she says it and then I laugh because, you know, it’s just something that we’ve always said. And I just always thought it was kind of funny. I never thought about it until he pointed it out to me.

Yeah.

Funny how that happens with language, right?

Right.

When somebody from a different part of the country and you get together.

Yeah.

I tell you what. I love this expression because it sounds like home. My mother was from Virginia.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it’s what linguists call a double modal. And that’s M-O-D-A-L. Those are verbs that express possibility or necessity. And those are words like can and could and ought to and may and might. And it is something that pretty much brands you as a son or daughter of the South. I might could go to the movies with you or something like that.

Grant, I think it’s an expression that’s stigmatized outside of the South. I think unfairly, but I don’t usually see it in print. You usually hear it, right?

Right.

Unless it’s somebody who’s writing folksy English specifically. But you know what’s also fun about these kinds of expressions is there are lots and lots of different variations of them. Like may could or may can or may will or may shall. Or might, would have had oughta. Might, would have had oughta. I mean, some people use that.

But I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you my favorite example of this, Susan. Well, I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other better, so you wouldn’t mind if I sang you a few lines, would you?

Yeah, that would be fun.

Okay, and then you can sing them to your New York husband. There’s a great song called Too Old to Cut the Mustard. Do you know this song? Do either of you know this song, Grant?

I do not know this song.

It’s a great song about being too old to cut the mustard, and it uses the expression used to could. I used to could jump just like a deer, but now I need a new landing gear. I used to could jump a picket fence, but now I’m lucky if I jump an inch. I’m too old, too old, too old to cut the mustard anymore.

Do you think you might want to sing that to your husband, Susan?

I think I’ll pass on that one.

Okay.

All right. The Martha Barnette songbook now in stores.

Well, just to show. And actually, there’s a very cool rendition of this song on YouTube that we should link to.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, there we go. Get this. It features Rosemary Clooney, George’s aunt, and Marlena Dietrich singing a duet. It’s hilarious.

Oh, how about that?

That’s an interesting combination.

Yeah, yeah.

So double modals are a dialect feature of Southern American English then, right?

That’s kind of our short story there.

Yes.

Okay, cool. So it’s legitimate, but honestly, I wouldn’t use it in writing if you’re trying to sound really standard because that’s the way you Yankees talk.

All right.

Well, Susan, thanks for giving us a call. I hope we helped.

Yes, it was fun.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

So Susan’s husband should get used to it, right?

If you have a question about language, if your spouse makes fun of something you say, we would love to hear that story. Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673. Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.