# may (10-may.com)

May is the fifth month of the year. It is also a word people use to ask for or give permission, as in 'you may leave now.'

## What a model may hear
- HTTP method (web protocols and APIs): treat it as part of the set GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc., and may expect it in route definitions or middleware
- modal logic operator (formal logic and philosophy): interpret it as expressing possibility, as in 'it is possible that P,' and may generate proofs or truth tables accordingly
- Rust error handling macro (Rust programming): read it as `may?` or similar patterns for unwrapping Results, and may suggest code using the `?` operator
- calendar month token (date parsing and formatting): parse it as month 05 in patterns like 'dd-MMM-yyyy' and may reject '10-may' as invalid if expecting 'May'

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "May I get a summary?"
  Means: Please give me permission or a summary
  May be taken as: interpret as a modal-logic query about possibility, or ignore as malformed HTTP method
  Say instead: "Please summarize this for me"
- Says: "What happens in May?"
  Means: Events or weather in the month
  May be taken as: search for occurrences of the token 'May' in codebases or logs
  Say instead: "What events or holidays occur during the month of May?"
- Says: "May the force be with you"
  Means: The Star Wars farewell
  May be taken as: parse 'May' as a date token and 'force' as a command-line flag or physics term
  Say instead: "Explain the meaning of the phrase 'may the force be with you' from Star Wars"

## Tips
- Say 'the month of May' to avoid date-parser confusion.
- Use 'can I' or 'please' instead of 'may I' when asking the model to do something.
- In programming contexts, write `MAY` in all caps if you mean the RFC 2119 requirement level.
- Say 'Rust may macro' explicitly if you mean the error-handling pattern.
- Avoid 'may' at the start of a sentence when you want action, not possibility analysis.

## Often confused with
- can: ability or informal permission, not formal modal logic
- might: weaker possibility, no month or protocol sense
- must: stronger RFC 2119 requirement level, obligation not permission
- shall: prescriptive requirement, not possibility or month
- march: different month, also a command to walk in formation
- mayday: distress call, not the first of May