もしかしたら・もしも～なら: “Supposing…”

Introduction

Maybe, just maaaaybe, this might be the most hypothetical grammar lesson of all time. I guess you'll just have to read on and find out... Or will you? Maaaybe...

The mighty "mights" of Japanese

構成こうせい

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  もしかしたら・もしかすると・もしかして(sentence)。
  Example:
  → もしかしたらマイクはいい人ひとかもしれない。
  "Mike might be a good person.”

Let's start things off by breaking down what these phrases actually are.

First up, we have the word もし, which, as you may remember, means "if; supposing". This is followed by か, the question particle, and finally, one of したら, すると, or して. So we're basically combining three very hypothetical "ifs/maybes" together to form one super hypothetical marker along the lines of "if X was to be the case...".