Japanese from zero · N3 Lesson 10
It must be
〜に違いない ・ もしかしたら ・ まさか ・ 〜と見える ・ 〜んだって
In this lesson, you will learn to guess with different amounts of certainty: 〜に 違いない when you are sure, もしかしたら when it is only a chance, まさか when you can't believe it, and 〜と 見える for what the clues suggest, and to pass on what you heard with 〜んだって. On a Saturday in Tokyo, Minju sees something she was not meant to see.
By the end you will be able to say
あの 二人は 付き合って いるに 違いない。Those two must be going out.
もしかしたら 遅れるかもしれません。I might possibly be late.
まさか！ 本当ですか。No way! Is that true?
へやが 暗い。もう 寝たと 見える。The room is dark. It seems she's already asleep.
明日は 休みなんだって。I hear tomorrow is a day off.
The grammar in this lesson
- 〜に違いない — must be; surely — Plain form + に 違いない says you are sure of something, judging from what you have seen or know.
- もしかしたら — maybe; there's a chance — もしかしたら opens a sentence that ends in かもしれない, for something that is only a chance.
- まさか — no way; surely not — まさか says you can't believe something, as a reaction on its own or at the start of a sentence.
- 〜と見える / 〜と見えて — it seems (from the clues) — Plain form + と 見える says what seems true from something you can see; と 見えて joins the clue to what happened.
- 〜んだって — I hear that; they say — Plain form + んだって passes on, casually, something you heard from someone else.