may … but (unexpected) – English Grammar Profiler
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 146 in MODALITY for OPINIONs is defined as:
‘may’ … ‘but’ to express an unexpected point of view.
Here are some expert examples:
You may not be able to leave every job where you‘re treated unfairly,
but in a perfect world, one without racism and sexism and the frictions associated with finding a new job,
it‘s your sense of fairness that would let you know when it was time to move on.
listen
You may have no tongue, but there is nothing wrong with your ears.
listen
A search on iWeb corpus for may * * * * but
1 MAY NOT REALIZE IT, BUT 788
2 MAY NOT BE PERFECT, BUT 545 3 MAY NOT KNOW THIS, BUT 528 4 MAY NOT KNOW IT, BUT 491 5 MAY NOT LIKE IT, BUT 430 6 MAY TAKE SOME TIME, BUT 360 7 MAY NOT BE TRUE, BUT 328 8 MAY BE THE CASE, BUT 310 9 MAY NOT BE EASY, BUT 295 10 MAY TAKE A WHILE, BUT 281 11 MAY COME AND GO, BUT 265
12 MAY NOT SEEM LIKE MUCH BUT 204
13 MAY BE THE SAME, BUT 183
14 MAY NOT BE NECESSARY, BUT 181
15 MAY HAVE MISSED IT, BUT 175 16 MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE BUT 171
17 MAY NOT SOUND LIKE MUCH BUT 158
18 MAY JUST BE ME, BUT 153
19 MAY NOT REALIZE THIS, BUT 144
20 MAY ALREADY KNOW THIS, BUT 140
2 MAY SEEM OBVIOUS, BUT 1861
3 MAY BE WRONG, BUT 1351 4 MAY BE SMALL, BUT 1321 5 MAY BE OVER, BUT 849
6 MAY SOUND OBVIOUS, BUT 827
14 MAY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT 430
20 MAY SEEM SIMPLE, BUT 398
The following example of our structure is actually C1.