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文法ぶんぽうGrammar Point

〜かもしれない might / maybe: Meaning & Examples

kamo shirenai · JLPT N4

JLPT N450 textsQuiz readyStudy card

〜かもしれない means “might / maybe”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern: below are its construction, the nuances that trip learners up, and the sentences where real Japanese writers use it.

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一枚いちまいStudy card

A free one-page study card for 〜かもしれない (might / maybe), JLPT N4: what it means, how it attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances that trip learners up. Read it right here, or take the PDF or PNG with you. We never ask for an email for this card.

The 〜かもしれない study card: one A4 page holding the pattern, its JLPT N4 meaning, the construction rules, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuance notes.
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How 〜かもしれない works

It attaches directly to plain forms: dictionary, た, and ない forms of verbs and い-adjectives, and bare nouns or な-adjective stems without だ (雨かもしれない, not ×雨だかもしれない). The polite version is かもしれません, and in casual speech it shortens to just かも.

構文こうぶんConstruction

  • Verb / い-adjective (plain form) + かもしれない

    午後は雨が降るかもしれない。 — It might rain this afternoon.

  • Noun / な-adjective (no だ) + かもしれない

    あの人は先生かもしれない。 — That person might be a teacher.

  • Polite: 〜かもしれません

    少し遅れるかもしれません。 — I may be a little late.

  • Casual: 〜かも

    明日は無理かも。 — Tomorrow might not work.

例文れいぶんIn a sentence

It might snow from tonight until tomorrow morning.
I might have left my keys in the car.
That shop might already be closed for the day.

注意点ちゅういてんNuances

  • On the certainty scale, かもしれない sits low ("possibly, 50-50 or less"). だろう/でしょう is a confident guess, and にちがいない is near-certainty.
  • Adding もしかしたら or ひょっとしたら at the start of the sentence flags early on that a guess is coming: もしかしたら間に合わないかもしれない.
  • Do not insert だ after nouns or な-adjectives: 静かかもしれない, 学生かもしれない — never ×静かだかもしれない.
How 〜かもしれない differs from similar patterns
  • 〜に違ちがいない — 〜にちがいない expresses near-certainty ("must be"); かもしれない merely raises a possibility ("might be"). Same slot, opposite ends of the confidence scale.
  • でしょう — 〜でしょう/だろう states a fairly confident guess ("probably"); かもしれない is weaker and leaves the outcome genuinely open.

練習れんしゅうYour Turn

Tip

Make three guesses about tomorrow — the weather, a friend’s plans, and something about your own day — using かもしれない, and rewrite one of them with casual かも.

〜かもしれない (might / maybe) in real sentences

Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.

— from The Leg (N4)

— from One Fire (N4)

— from The Big Cleaning (N3)

— from The Summer of Others (N2)

確認かくにんSelf-check

Practise 〜かもしれない: fill in the blank

4 sentences taken from real Japanese texts, with the grammar removed. Pick what belongs in the gap.

Question 1 of 4

  1. こんど、小田くんのうち、田舎へいくblankよ。

    Answer: かもしれない — from The One-Eyed Greeting (N3)

  2. 彼はただ夢を見ていたblankと思った。

    Answer: かもしれない — from The Snow Woman (N2)

  3. 私がよく怪物に勝つことがあるよ、しかし或は負けていたのblankがね

    Answer: かもしれない — from The Tanuki Dialogue (N2)

  4. 食べるものも住むところもなくなっちまうblankんだ

    Answer: かもしれない — from The Well (N1)

Read the texts these came from

Appears in 50 of 367 texts in our library.

蔵書ぞうしょThe texts

50 texts in the library use 〜かもしれない

Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.

耳無芳一の話 cover Read 耳無芳一の話 The Story of Mimi-nashi Hoichi 小泉 八雲 58 min read · Short Story ろくろ首 cover Read ろくろ首 The Long-Necked Monster 小泉 八雲 51 min read · Short Story あし cover Read あし The Leg 新美 南吉 8 min read · Short Story ひとつの火 cover Read ひとつの火 One Fire 新美 南吉 8 min read · Short Story 番町皿屋敷 cover Read 番町皿屋敷 The Dish Mansion at Bancho 岡本 綺堂 85 min read · Short Story 黒襟飾組の魔手 cover Read 黒襟飾組の魔手 The Black Scarf Gang's Evil Hand 山本 周五郎 102 min read · Short Story 井戸 cover Read 井戸 The Well ジェイコブス ウイリアム・ワイマーク 76 min read · Short Story 他人の夏 cover Read 他人の夏 The Summer of Others 山川 方夫 23 min read · Short Story 雪女 cover Read 雪女 The Snow Woman 小泉 八雲 28 min read · Short Story いちょうの実 cover Read いちょうの実 The Ginkgo Nut 宮沢 賢治 21 min read · Short Story 四十不惑 cover Read 四十不惑 Forty and Unconfused 佐々木 邦 87 min read · Short Story 英米笑話秀逸 cover Read 英米笑話秀逸 Excellent English and American Jokes 佐々木 邦 18 min read · Short Story
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解説かいせつBackground

Where this 〜かもしれない explanation comes from

〜かもしれない sits at JLPT N4 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜かもしれない and pull its example sentences out of them.

The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (The Leg and One Fire among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.

質問しつもんQuestions

〜かもしれない: questions & answers

Is かも by itself grammatical?

In casual speech, yes — 行けないかも ("I might not make it") is extremely common. It is a clipped form of かもしれない; in polite conversation or writing, use the full かもしれません or かもしれない.

What is the difference between かもしれない and でしょう?

Certainty. でしょう/だろう is a fairly confident guess ("probably"), while かもしれない genuinely leaves the outcome open ("might — or might not"). You can even stack opposite possibilities: 行くかもしれないし、行かないかもしれない.

Do I need だ before かもしれない after a noun?

No — attach it directly: 学生かもしれない, 静かかもしれない. Inserting だ (×学生だかもしれない) is a common learner error; だ only surfaces in related forms like のだ or だろう.

Is there a printable 〜かもしれない cheat sheet?

Yes. A free one-page 〜かもしれない (might / maybe) study card sits at the top of this page, as both a PDF and a PNG. It carries the JLPT N4 meaning, how the pattern attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances learners get wrong. You do not need an account or an email address to download it.

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