もしかしたら〜かもしれない details
write + it may just be that
moshikashitara kaku kamo shirenai
it may just be that; there's a chance — an outside possibility flagged before it is stated
meaning: might possibly write
彼女はもしかしたら来るかもしれないよ。
kanojo wa moshikashitara kuru kamo shirenai yo.
She might possibly come, you know. casual
今から出れば、もしかしたら間に合うかもしれない。
ima kara dereba, moshikashitara maniau kamo shirenai.
If we leave now, we might possibly make it in time. neutral
- dictionary form
- noun
- na-adjective
- i-adjective
- alternant
- alternant
- polite
- past
Examples
it may just be that — an unlikely possibility the speaker raises before saying it
彼女はもしかしたら来るかもしれないよ。
kanojo wa moshikashitara kuru kamo shirenai yo.
She might possibly come, you know. casual
今から出れば、もしかしたら間に合うかもしれません。
ima kara dereba, moshikashitara ma ni au kamo shiremasen.
If we leave now, we might possibly make it in time. neutral
もしかして、前にどこかで会ってる？
moshikashite, mae ni dokoka de atteru?
Have we met somewhere before, by any chance? casual
もしかしたら、今年は雪が少ないかもしれませんね。
moshikashitara, kotoshi wa yuki ga sukunai kamo shiremasen ne.
There's a chance we'll get little snow this year. neutral
もしかすると、ご希望の日にはご用意できないかもしれません。
moshikasuruto, go kibou no hi ni wa go youi dekinai kamo shiremasen.
There is a chance we will not be able to have it ready on your preferred date. formal
Formation
もしかしたら{V}かもしれないattaches to dictionary formもしかしたら{N}かもしれないattaches to nounもしかしたら{NA-stem}かもしれないattaches to na-adjectiveもしかしたら{I}かもしれないattaches to i-adjective
Variant notes
- もしかすると — the same opening a shade more formal, at home in writing and careful speech — もしかすると、雪になるかもしれません。
- もしかして — leads a question the speaker already suspects the answer to — もしかして、田中さんですか。 It also stands alone as a hunch (もしかして…), and a plain statement of someone's chances tends to prefer もしかしたら.
Notes
the same outside chance more cautiously in careful speech and writing.
Related patterns
Similar
かもしれない alone states a possibility flatly; もしかしたら announces one is coming and marks it as the outside chance, so it is what raises the unlikely reading of a situation rather than the expected one.
たぶん bets on the case the speaker expects, もしかしたら floats the one nobody expects — たぶん来ない treats absence as the working assumption, もしかしたら来るかもしれない keeps a thin chance alive.
Lookalikes
The たら inside もしかしたら conditions nothing — no clause supplies its "if", and what follows is a guess rather than a consequence, so the pairing to look for is the かもしれない at the end, not a result clause.