# EN: may yet to be discovered



## BEEKEEPER

Bonjour,

Je ne comprends pas la grammaire de  "many more treasures *may yet to be *discovered"
Je comprends que beaucoup d'autres trésors restent à découvrir mais je ne m'explique pas  pas *may to *


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## Loulamer

Bonsoir, 
Tu as parfaitement saisi le sens de la phrase. Il n'y a pas "may to". Le "to" est relié à "be discovered".
Le découpage se fait donc ainsi : "many more treasures / may / yet / to be discovered"
C'est plus clair ?


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## BEEKEEPER

may to be discovered    reste cependant grammaticalement surprenant.


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## Kelly B

You're right, assuming surprenant is a polite way to say "wrong." It needs a second be, but since that repetition is ugly (_may be yet to be discovered/may yet be to be discovered_ ) I'd rephrase, either _may remain to be discovered_ or _are yet to be discovered. _The latter is, of course, a little more assertive than the original.


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## Albatrosspro

Hmm, je ne reconnais pas cette expression sans réfléchir, mais si elle était courante, ce serait pas plus tard que le 18em siècle je dirais. Dans l'anglais moderne, quand "may" est suit par un infinitif, c'est un infinitif simple sans "to". "I may go." "He may discover." Ainsi, je vois deux possibilités pour rendre courante cette phrase: "Many more treasures have yet to be discovered," ou "Many more treasures may yet be discovered." "Have" prenant toujours l'infinitif avec "to".


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## lamy08

Si on est sûr que cela arrivera, on peut aussi dire: _many more treasures are yet to be discovered._


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## Albatrosspro

Certainement mais ceci n'est pas assez proche de l'idiome que la version avec "have", et "have" implique la certitude de leur existence aussi.


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## BEEKEEPER

Vos réponse confirme ma surprise.

Merci à tous pour votre précieuse contribution.


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## OLN

Merci d'avoir soulevé la question, Beekeeper. 
J'ai l'impression d'avoir lu tant de fois déjà "may yet to be" + participe passé, que "may yet be to be" m'aurait fait sacrément plus tiquer. 

Alors la seule façon orthodoxe de dire "Il se peut que beaucoup d'autres trésors soient encore /restent à découvrir" est "Many... may remain to be discovered", ou peut-on dire aussi "It may be that many... are yet to be..." ?

("Many more treasures have yet to be discovered" et "Many more treasures may yet be discovered" n'ont pour moi pas le même sens).


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## wildan1

Hello,

To me _"may" yet to be discovered_ adds a suggestion of possibility, rather than probability expressed by _"are" yet to be... _


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## Albatrosspro

Interesting, OLN and wildan1. To me, "may yet to be + pp" sounds either like an error or something archaic. However, "may yet to be" in Google gives about 700,000 hits. I'm still skeptical about this one, though, because "may to be discovered" is obviously not right (please tell me if you disagree), and I don't see how adding an adverb can legitimize the underlying construction. Right now, my gut is that this is a popularized/bastardized form of "have yet to be", "may have yet to be", or "may yet be", or some combination. Maybe I'll try to do some quick research.


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## radagasty

I'm afraid I don't with wildan1. To me, 'may yet to be discovered' is a solecism. The way Google counts hits is frequently misleading, but, having examined some of those so-called examples, I would go so far as to say that they are all wrong.

On the other hand, the following constructions are all syntactically possible:

1. Many more treasures are yet to be discovered.
2. Many more treasures may yet be discovered.
3. Many more treasures have yet to be discovered. *

That said, they differ in sense:

(1) The treasures exist, without saying anything about whether they will be discovered or not.
(2) It is possible that more treasures will be discovered, without saying anything about whether they exist.
(3) Many more treasures have not been discovered. *

There is an asterisk next to (3), because I think this construction is slightly unsatisfactory, as the subject of 'have yet to be discovered' should be definite, _e.g._, 'the proof of Fermat's last theorem' or 'the golden apples of the Hesperides':

_The Holy Grail has yet to be discovered.
_
That is to say, it may or may not exist, but it has not been discovered.

'Many more treasures', however, is not capable of this interpretation--they may or may not exist, but they have not been discovered?!


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## Albatrosspro

Generally I agree. I have a slightly different feeling about some of these--

(1) To me this is the most emphatic of the three; I think it shows either the speaker's confidence that they will be discovered, or an intention to discover them. (To be) + yet to be + p.p. tends to have this connotation, doesn't it? "The boy is to be punished." "The date is to be postponed."

(2) In agreement, and

(3) To me, this gives a strong glimmering of hope; I get the image of treasures lying in wait. And I don't see the definite/indefinite thing, at least at the moment: "Despite the government's warnings, weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found." I think this is an acceptable, and probably the best, way to phrase this. I think in our case, you are strongly suggesting that the treasures do in fact exist; it might have something to do with the "many".


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## quelesttonnom

I'm english and the sentence doesn't make sense like that. It should be
"many more treasures* are *yet to be discovered"
or
"many more treasures may *yet be* discovered"


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## radagasty

Albatrosspro said:


> (3) To me, this gives a strong glimmering of hope; I get the image of treasures lying in wait. And I don't see the definite/indefinite thing, at least at the moment: "Despite the government's warnings, weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found." I think this is an acceptable, and probably the best, way to phrase this. I think in our case, you are strongly suggesting that the treasures do in fact exist; it might have something to do with the "many".



Hmm... you may be right about the definite/indefinite thing. Your example with 'weapons of mass destruction' is a good one. Perhaps the problem is with the 'many more'. For instance, 'Despite extensive searches, many more weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found.' I would judge unacceptable, even though the version without 'many more' is fine.


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## Albatrosspro

I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about these sentences, I'll admit . I think maybe when you look at them all in parallel the "have yet" seems off, but when you bring back some context it's fine. Imagine an article describing a group of scientists who have identified a cluster of old shipwrecks at the bottom of the ocean. In concludes: "Although the availability of funding for future research is in question, one thing remains clear. Many more treasures have yet to be discovered." This is basically the inverse of the weapons example; where that one is negative on the outlook, this one is positive.


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## wildan1

But still, _have yet to be discovered_ and _are yet to be discovered_ suggest probability.

On the other hand, _may yet to be discovered _suggests that maybe there are more (or maybe not)--just a possibility we are not too sure about.


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## Kelly B

wildan1 said:


> On the other hand, _may yet to be discovered _suggests that maybe there are more (or maybe not)--just a possibility we are not too sure about.


But the grammatical issue remains - there is a verb missing from that phrase. It is incorrect as it stands, and adding a second _be _is ugly. May *be *to be , *have *yet to be, *remain *to be are possible solutions, and in my opinion it is essential to pick one.

 It may be  that simply removing the _to _would suffice.


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