she may have given up her career in law

[HenHanna]

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=what+might+have+been%2C+what+may+have+been&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
Best.
--
Marius Hancu

i go camping with friends
and there is a problem
(sudden illness, or someone almost drowns)

Afterwards i remember....


What might have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.


What may have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.


i'm not sure if i'd use the 2nd form.

[HenHanna]

Post by HenHanna

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=what+might+have+been%2C+what+may+have+been&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
Best.
--
Marius Hancu

i go camping with friends
and there is a problem
(sudden illness, or someone almost drowns)
Afterwards i remember....
What might have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.

this is the typical Counterfactual sentence.

Post by HenHanna
What may have been a great weekend turned out to be a nightmare.

There was no problem for me,
(and apparently for everyone else)

but a friend (in the group) was secretly
going thru a crisis.

(perceptual difference)

What may have been a thoroughly-pleasant, great weekend for me
was certainly not so for Bill.