N4 grammar

〜かもしれない

kamoshirenai

It might be

Formation

かもしれない marks a real but uncertain possibility, weaker than でしょう. It attaches directly to a plain form and to bare nouns. The polite version is かもしれません, and speech often trims it to かも.

Examples

〜かもしれない is marked in each sentence. Tap any word for its dictionary entry.

  1. I'm afraid I've contracted a venereal disease.

  2. Perhaps it will rain tomorrow.

  3. I may win by some chance.

  4. It may possibly be fine tomorrow.

  5. Perhaps that's true.

The explanation is ours, written for this site. Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), each machine-checked to actually contain the pattern. Furigana is generated automatically, so a rare reading may be imperfect.