with may vs without may

[optimistic pessimist]

1. Whatever occupation you may choose, life-work balance is important.

2. Whatever occupation you choose, life-work balance is important.

I think the two sentences above are almost the same in meaning.

If so, what is the role of may in #1? Does it make the sentence sound softer?

 

[Tarheel]

I don't think "may" adds anything there, and I don't think it makes the sentence sound softer (whatever that means).


Whatever floats your boat.

 

[Tarheel]

Whatever occupation you happen to choose?

If that's what it means then I definitely recommend against using "may" there. Why? Because I don't think of an occupation as something you "happen to" choose.

 

[Tarheel]

You said it. You chose something you thought might be right for you. It didn't just happen.

 

[jutfrank]

I'd say it adds a sense of openness. You may choose any occupation that you wish, if you wish to do so.

I think this openness gives it a more hypothetical kind of possibility. Without may, it seems that the listener will definitely choose an occupation of some kind, and without may, the listener will not necessarily choose any occupation.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Whatever occupation you happen to choose?

If that's what it means then I definitely recommend against using "may" there. Why? Because I don't think of an occupation as something you "happen to" choose.

Yup. Either you choose it or it chooses you.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Well, in 1967 I was looking round for a job after I graduated and happened to choose teaching. I definitely did not feel some inner call; I just ran through a list of possibilities, banking, the police, the services, management training, etc, and suddenly came up with teaching as probably something I could do.

Good point!

I'm retired, and I still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, in 1967 I was looking round for a job after I graduated and happened to choose teaching. I definitely did not feel some inner call; I just ran through a list of possibilities, banking, the police, the services, management training, etc, and suddenly came up with teaching as probably something I could do.

Ditto (though not teaching). When I finished my full-time education, I still didn't have one particular thing that I really wanted to do. I did odd jobs for a couple of years before joining the Civil Service - not because I desperately wanted to but because a job happened to come up that matched my skill set at the time. After two decades in the Civil Service, I wanted to do something different, and I particularly wanted to do it abroad. Teaching was something that I knew would get me to Madrid and provide me with a fairly decent income once I was there. It did. If I hadn't had that drive to work abroad, I'd probably have ended up staying in the Civil Service.
Although I have chosen all my jobs (or at least I chose to apply for them - the relevant decision makers didn't all choose to employ me!), none of them could be described as a vocation.