Can vs. May — What's the Difference?

Be able to

May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Be permitted to

Expressing possibility

Used to request someone to do something

Used to ask for or to give permission

Preserve (food) in a can

Expressing a wish or hope

Dismiss from a job

The fifth month of the year, in the northern hemisphere usually considered the last month of spring

A cylindrical metal container

A hawthorn or its blossoms.

Prison

The fifth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. See Table at calendar.

The toilet

The springtime of life; youth.

Headphones.

The celebration of May Day.

A woman's breasts.

To be strong; to have power (over).

A usually cylindrical metal container.

To be able; can.

An airtight container, usually made of tin-coated iron, in which foods or beverages are preserved.

To be able to go.

The contents of such a container

To have permission to, be allowed. Used in granting permission and in questions to make polite requests.

(Slang) A jail or prison.

Expressing a present possibility; possibly.

(Slang) A toilet or restroom.

Expressing a wish (with present subjunctive effect).

(Slang) The buttocks.

Used in modesty, courtesy, or concession, or to soften a question or remark.

(Slang) A naval destroyer.

To gather may, or flowers in general.

To seal in an airtight container for future use; preserve

To celebrate May Day.

(Slang) To make a recording of

The hawthorn bush or its blossoms.

To end the employment of; fire.

(archaic) A maiden.

To put an end or stop to

An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb,

To solicit cash donations for a charity or other organization such as a club or amateur sports team by holding out a can or other container in a public place.

Liberty; permission; allowance.

To know how to; to be able to.

Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.

May; to be permitted or enabled to.

Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a question or remark.

(modal auxiliary verb, defective) To have the potential to; be possible.

Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction, and the like.

Used with verbs of perception.

A maiden.

To know.

The fifth month of the year, containing thirty-one days.

To seal in a can.

The early part or springtime of life.

To preserve by heating and sealing in a jar or can.

The flowers of the hawthorn; - so called from their time of blossoming; also, the hawthorn.

To discard, scrap or terminate (an idea, project, etc.).

The merrymaking of May Day.

To shut up.

The month following April and preceding June

To fire or dismiss an employee.

Thorny Eurasian shrub of small tree having dense clusters of white to scarlet flowers followed by deep red berries; established as an escape in eastern North America

To hole the ball.

(transitive) To cover (the fuel element in a nuclear reactor) with a protective cover.

A more or less cylindrical vessel for liquids, usually of steel or aluminium, but sometimes of plastic, and with a carrying handle over the top.

A container used to carry and dispense water for plants (a watering can).

A tin-plate canister, often cylindrical, for preserved foods such as fruit, meat, or fish.

A chamber pot, now a toilet or lavatory.

Buttocks.

(slang) Jail or prison.

Headphones.

(archaic) A drinking cup.

(nautical) A cube-shaped buoy or marker used to denote a port-side lateral mark

A chimney pot.

An E-meter used in Scientology auditing.

An ounce (or sometimes, two ounces) of marijuana.

A protective cover for the fuel element in a nuclear reactor.

An obs. form of began, imp. & p. p. of Begin, sometimes used in old poetry. [See Gan.]

A drinking cup; a vessel for holding liquids.

A vessel or case of tinned iron or of sheet metal, of various forms, but usually cylindrical; as, a can of tomatoes; an oil can; a milk can.

To preserve by putting in sealed cans

To know; to understand.

To be able to do; to have power or influence.

To be able; - followed by an infinitive without to; as, I can go, but do not wish to.

Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc.

The quantity contained in a can

A buoy with a round bottom and conical top

The fleshy part of the human body that you sit on;

A plumbing fixture for defecation and urination

A room equipped with toilet facilities

Preserve in a can or tin;

Terminate the employment of;