Why to use "May" before using "May God bless you"?
Rise to the top 3% as a developer or hire one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
--------------------------------------------------
Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Music Box Puzzles
--
Chapters
00:00 Why To Use &Quot;May&Quot; Before Using &Quot;May God Bless You&Quot;?
00:38 Accepted Answer Score 20
01:07 Answer 2 Score 16
01:22 Answer 3 Score 10
01:40 Thank you
--
Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...
--
Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...
--
Tags
#grammaticality #modalverbs
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 20
See meaning 4 of may at dictionary.com
(used to express wish or prayer): May you live to an old age.
It follows the same grammatical pattern as let (and is almost a synonym).
Let their children grow up happy!
May their children grow up happy!
The usage of may in this sense is not restricted to prayers, although one could say that it's formal, if not pompous, in modern usage.
ANSWER 2
Score 16
Putting "May" first changes the sentence from a command to a request. Rather than instructing God to bless someone, the speaker is rather hoping that God will do so.
ANSWER 3
Score 10
When studying biblical hebrew, I ran into the usage of the jussive form - the third person form of the imperative. This is often used with relation to prayers. It is often translated as "may", so that may be the source of this usage - that is, a word that implies a command without actually commanding God.