Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
だろう / でしょう

だろう / でしょう

だろう / でしょう Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Auxiliary Expression

Essential Meaning: Probably / Right? (expressing unfounded conjecture)

Construction: 

  • (Verb / い-Adjective) informal + だろう
    • E.g. 話はなすだろう [X probably speaks]
    • E.g. 高たかいだろう [X is probably expensive]
  • な-Adjective stem / Noun + (だった) + だろう
    • E.g. 静しずかだろう [X is probably quiet]
    • E.g. 先生せんせいだっただろう [X was probably a teacher]

Notes:

  • だろう expresses informal conjecture that is not based on any particular information or evidence. The formal variant of だろう is でしょう.
  • だろう / でしょう sometimes pairs with probability adverbs such as たぶん [Probably] or きっと [Certainly] to express the speaker’s confidence that something will / will not happen or that something is / is not the case.
    • E.g. アンダーソンさんはたぶん日本にほんへ行いくだろう。[Mr. Anderson will probably go to Japan.]
    • E.g. アンダーソンさんはきっと日本にほんへ行いくだろう。[I’m almost certain that Mr. Anderson will go to Japan.]
  • In interrogative sentences, だろう / でしょう serves to soften questions and make them less direct (and thereby more formal). It generally conveys the idea of “I wonder…”
    • E.g. 大丈夫だいじょうぶですか。[Is it all right?]
    • E.g. 大丈夫だいじょうぶでしょうか。[I wonder if it’s alright?]
  • だろう can be articulated with rising inflection to seek agreement from the hearer. This is softer and more polite than the sentence-final particle ね.
    • E.g. 君きみも行いくだろう？ [You’ll go too, right?]
    • E.g. これ、きれいでしょう？ [This is pretty, don’t you think?]

Example Sentences:

あのアパートは高たかいでしょう。[That apartment is probably expensive.]

ロジャーはスキーが上手じょうずだろう。[Roger is probably good at skiing.]

あの人は中国人ちゅうごくじんだろう。[That person is probably Chinese.]

WILD Examples:

This song begins with the following line: 僕ぼくが生うままれた、この島しまの空そらを、僕ぼくはどれくらい知しっているんだろう [This island where I was born, I wonder how well I know its sky?] In this example, だろう is used interrogatively to convey the idea of “I wonder…”
Listen to this opening line beginning at 0:27: どれくらいの値打ねうちがあるだろう、僕ぼくが今いま生いきているこの世界せかいに [About how much value is there, in this world where I am living]

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