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Formation: V / い-adj plain form + に違いない; な-adj stem / N + に違いない (no だ; past: だったに違いない); polite: に違いありません

This pattern states the speaker's strong conviction, based on evidence, reasoning or intuition, that something is so. It is the speaker's own judgment and sounds fairly written or emphatic. In everyday talk, はずだ or きっと〜と思う are more common. Compare はずだ: that is a logical expectation from known facts, while に違いない is a more personal, intuitive certainty. Also compare 〜と見える, a judgment drawn from appearances, and 〜わけがない, which shows equal certainty in the opposite direction (there's no way that). The formal written equivalent is に相違ない.

Variants: に違いありません、に違いなかった、に相違ない

Examples

• あの店はいつも行列だから、おいしいに違いない。
  That place always has a line, so it must be good.
• 犯人は内部の事情に詳しい人物に違いない。
  The culprit must be someone who knows the inside situation well.
• 電気が消えている。もう寝てしまったに違いない。
  The lights are off. They must have already gone to bed.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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