adverbial N3 common casualpolitewritten
まさか — surely not / no way
まさか
Meaning
- surely not / no way / you can't mean — incredulous denial of something unexpected
Carries genuine disbelief — the speaker finds the idea almost impossible and is shocked it happened or might.
Key sentence
まさか彼が来るとは思わなかった。
I never dreamed he'd actually come.
Usage
Stands alone as まさか！ ('No way!'). In a sentence it leads into 〜とは／〜なんて (shock) or pairs with a negative guess (〜ないだろう).
Examples
まさか試験に落ちるなんて。
I can't believe I failed the exam.
まさかそんなことはないだろう。
Surely that can't be the case.
Easily confused with
See まさか in real sentences
Jengo shows まさか the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.