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Formation: V / い-adj plain form (present or past) + かのように; N / な-adj + である（だった）+ かのように; かのような + N; sentence-final かのようだ

〜かのように describes something by comparing it to a state that isn't actually true: the person acts as if they knew, the weather is as cold as if it were winter. Speakers often add まるで in front, and it often goes with past forms such as 何もなかったかのように. The tone can be neutral, but it often hints that someone is pretending or that things only look a certain way. It is found in both writing and speech and is especially common in essays, novels and news reporting. With nouns and な-adjectives the standard form is であるかのように; ordinary ように or みたいに simply mean 'like', whereas かのように stresses that the comparison is imagined or contrary to fact. The classical 〜ごとく also means 'as if', but it is literary and stiffer.

Variants: かのような、かのようだ、まるで〜かのように、であるかのように

Examples

• 彼は何もなかったかのように、平然と仕事を続けた。
  He calmly carried on working as if nothing had happened.
• 三月なのに、まるで真冬であるかのような寒さだ。
  It's March, yet it's as cold as if it were the middle of winter.
• 彼女はすべてを知っているかのような口ぶりで話した。
  She talked as though she knew everything.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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