The Dutch Grammar Forum

How would you translate the following ?

> Want Musk mag dan zelf spijt hebben, ...

It seems to me that "mogen" primarily means "be allowed to" which can be given also by "can" in English in one of its acceptions and would be closest to "dürfen" in German. However, in this sentence (from a newspaper) I would translate

> Since Musk could have regrets himself, ...

We could bears no notion of "right" of "being allowed to", it expresses a potentiality.

I would translate the sentence with 'Because Musk may have regrets....' I don't know the end of the sentence but most of the time in this sort of sentences it will follow up with some sort of blame. 'He may have regrets but that doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong' or something like that.

You're right that most of the time 'mogen' means 'are allowed to' for example: 'Je mag hier niet roken' (You're not allowed to smoke here)

Dank u wel!

It means "mag" can also express the likelihood of something, an assumption or hypothesis made, here w.r.t. Musk thoughts. A bit like "mögen" in one of its use in German, expressing the potentiality of something as assumed by the one who is speaking.

Then in Dutch "mogen" is expressing

most of the time > the permission: be allowed to, have the right to (or polite ask) (~ German dürfen)

sometimes > the potentiality : could, may (~ German mögen)

Would you confirm?

Unfortunately my German is not that great Maybe someone else can confirm the German translation.

Yes, can confirm.