May, might confusion [duplicate]

We use might to imply less possibility than when we use may.

Might is also the past tense of may.

If he had run faster, he might have won the race.

If he runs faster, he may win the race.

It is also considered a politer and more formal alternative to may.

Might I borrow your car?

There are other places that may and might may be used, but these are the ones that might be confusing.

It's really a toss-up, see http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/may-might-muddle/

If even the NYT has trouble using them "correctly" then I certainly won't bother too much. Didn't honestly know these subtleties (and they are subtle) myself.

Some more googling led me to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv162.shtml So the BBC World Service seems to agree with me ;-)

Come to think of it, actually, I tend to hear/put an emphasis on "might" in this context, which clearly indicated this "(a little) less likely as may" meaning.