ひょっとしたら

ひょ

っ

と

し

た

ら

Common wordJLPTN2Freq.FrequencyTop 20,000

Meanings

1

expression

possibly; perhaps; maybe

Used to express a possibility or conjecture, often with a sense of uncertainty. Common in conditional or speculative sentences.

ひょっとしたら、彼かれはもう

来き

て

いる

か

も

しれ

ない

。

Perhaps he has already arrived.

ひょっとしたら雨あめが降ふるかもしれないから、傘かさを持もっていこう。

It might rain, so let's take an umbrella.

Related words

もしかしたらN3
ひょっとしたら and もしかしたら both mean 'perhaps', but もしかしたら sounds slightly more formal and is more common in serious or polite speech.
多た分ぶんN5
たぶん expresses a stronger degree of likelihood ('probably'), while ひょっとしたら suggests a much lower, more tentative possibility.
ひょっとするとN2
ひょっとしたら is an almost interchangeable variant of ひょっとすると, differing only in the following conjugation pattern it favors.
もしかするとN2
ひょっとしたら is a close variant of もしかすると, differing mainly in slightly more formal or old-fashioned tone.
ひょっとして
ひょっとしたら and ひょっとして share the same root nuance of a tentative guess, but ひょっとしたら leans slightly more toward introducing a hypothetical outcome.

Don't confuse with

ひょっとして
ひょっとしたら and ひょっとして share the same root meaning of 'maybe', but ひょっとして is used more flexibly mid-sentence (often before a question or かもしれない) while ひょっとしたら typically opens a speculative clause.

Etymology

Derived from the adverb ひょっと (by chance) combined with the conditional form したら of する, literally meaning 'if it happens by chance'. The exact origin of ひょっと is uncertain, but it is likely a mimetic word.