This mini episode teaches you the common and useful expression “might as well.”
Episode 179 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the common and useful expression “might as well.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
The expression I’m going to teach you today is “might as well.” Might as well. That’s might: m-i-g-h-t, as: a-s, well: w-e-l-l. Might as well.
What does it mean when we say that somebody “might as well” do something? What does “might as well” mean? “Might as well” means several different, but related, things. “Might as well” means “There is no good reason not to do something.” If there is no good reason not to do something, then we could say that you “might as well do that thing.” For instance, if your boss wants you to work late one night, and you don’t have any other plans, and you don’t really have anything else to do, you could say, “Well, I might as well work late tonight.” So, that’s one meaning of “might as well.” It’s what we say when we have no good reason not to do something.
Another meaning of “might as well” is “to do something when you have no choice.” To do something when you must do it. It’s sort of like saying “to accept that you must do something.” For instance, let’s say that you have gone to the eye doctor, and the eye doctor has examined your eyesight. And the eye doctor says, “You must start wearing glasses or contact lenses.” You do not really want to start wearing glasses or contact lenses, but you say, “Well, I might as well choose some glasses to wear.” What you’re saying when you say, “I might as well buy some glasses” is “I don’t really have a choice. It’s something I must do, so I will accept it. I will just do it.”
And the last way that we use “might as well” is to mean “there is no real difference between two choices.” If there is no real difference between this choice and that choice, then you might as well do the first one. Or I guess you might as well do the second one. There is no real difference.
So, those are three ways that we use “might as well.”
You know, you might have heard this expression in a very famous song from the 1980s. Have you heard this song?
[Van Halen’s “Jump” plays.]
Did you hear what the singer said? He said, “You might as well jump.” You might as well jump. And what I think he is saying is something like, “Well, you have no good reason not to do it.” Here, he’s talking about jumping into life. There’s no good reason not to, so you might as well do it. “Hey! Just do it!” That’s what he’s saying.
One more thing I want to say about this expression: you will also hear and read “may as well.” You will encounter “might as well” and “may as well.” And those two expressions mean exactly the same thing, and they are used in exactly the same way. “Might as well,” “may as well.”
Well, that is the expression “might as well” (or “may as well”), and I think this is a common and useful expression that you should know.