Q: I recently received a greeting card with the message “I hope every day finds you feeling better than the day before.” While I appreciated the sentiment, I felt that the wording could be enhanced by changing “I hope every day finds” to “May every day find.” However, I then realized that the verb also needed to change, and I was unsure why.
A: Both of the following sentences are grammatically correct: (1) “I hope every day finds you feeling better than the day before,” and (2) “May every day find you feeling better than the day before.”
You are correct in noting that the subject of each sentence is the singular “day,” yet the verb changes: “every day finds” versus “may every day find.” This phenomenon can be explained as follows.
The term “may” in the second example functions as a modal auxiliary verb, adding a sense of modality to the main verb, such as probability, necessity, permission, or obligation.
In a structure like this, the main verb is always a bare (or “to”-less) infinitive, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural:
“A typical day may find him at work by 7 a.m.” … “Most days may find him at work by 7 a.m.”
In the second example you provided, the auxiliary “may” and the subject are reversed, but the underlying principle remains the same. Instead of “Every day may find,” we have the reverse, “May every day find.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the auxiliary “may” is “used (with inversion of verb and subject) in exclamatory expressions of wish.”
Two examples from the OED: “Long may he reigne” (1611); “May your soul never wander and may you find eternal peace” (1986).
This brings to mind the well-known song from the past, “May You Always” (1958), written by Larry Markes and Dick Charles and often associated with the McGuire Sisters.
For those interested in delving deeper, we have written several posts on modal auxiliary verbs like “may,” “must,” “can,” and “shall.” A post from 2020 includes links to two other relevant posts.
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