Use of the English word "might"

Question

Hi Silvia. In the example, "Tal vez yo haya estudiado mucho para el examen," the English translation says, "I might have studied a lot for the exam". Is that "I might have studied a lot" in the sense "maybe I would have studied a lot [if I had time?"] Or "Perhaps (it possible) I studied a lot for the exam"? Both?

Oh wait, after writing this I realized that the sentence perhaps means, "I should have studied a lot for the exam.” We Americans almost never use the word “might” in this sense. I’m not sure how much you Brits (all British residents) do. Is this the sense in which it is used here?

Answer

Hola Wylie
Here "Tal vez yo haya estudiado mucho para el examen" (I might/may have studied a lot for the exam) what we mean is "Perhaps I studied a lot for the exam." Your sentence "I should have studied" would be using "debería" in Spanish: "Tal vez debería haber estudiado mucho para el examen" (implying that you actually didn't study much...).
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Thanks Inma! That's what I thought when I initially read the Spanish. The ambiguity of the English word "might" and potential differences between English in the UK and English in the states caused me confusion.