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. 話すだろう [X probably speaks]
- E.g. 高いだろう [X is probably expensive]
- な-Adjective stem / Noun + (だった) + だろう
- E.g. 静かだろう [X is probably quiet]
- E.g. 先生だっただろう [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へ行くだろう。[Mr. Anderson will probably go to Japan.]
- E.g. アンダーソンさんはきっと日本へ行くだろう。[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. 大丈夫ですか。[Is it all right?]
- E.g. 大丈夫でしょうか。[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. 君も行くだろう? [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:
あのアパートは高いでしょう。[That apartment is probably expensive.]
ロジャーはスキーが上手だろう。[Roger is probably good at skiing.]
あの人は中国人だろう。[That person is probably Chinese.]
WILD Examples:
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