はず

はず Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Noun

Essential Meaning: I expect that / It is expected that / No wonder

Construction: 

• (Verb / い-Adjective) informal + はずだ
  • E.g. 話はなすはすだ [I expect that X speaks]
  • E.g. 食たべるはずだ [I expect that X eats]
  • E.g. 高たかいはずだ [I expect that X is expensive]

• な-Adjective stem + [だ / だった] + はずだ
  • E.g. 静しずかだはずだ [I expect that X is quiet]

• Noun + [の / だった] + はずだ
  • E.g. 先生せんせいのはずだ [I expect that X is a teacher]

Notes:

• Sentence + はず expresses the speaker’s expectation that the content of the sentence is true or will become true. It does not convey a hope, a wish, or a guess, but merely an expectation.
• Although はず is a noun, it cannot be used alone. In other words, it’s a dependent noun. はず must be proceeded by a sentence or by a demonstrative pronoun such as その or あの.
  • E.g. Preceded by a demonstrative pronoun: A: マークも来きますか？ B: はい、そのはずです。[A: Is Mark coming as well? B: Yes, that is my expectation.]
  • E.g. Preceded by a sentence: あの本ほんは高たかかったはずだ。[I expect that book was expensive.]

• Negative expectations can be expressed in two ways. Negative Sentence + はずだ expresses an expectation that something won’t happen or that something won’t be the case, while Positive Sentence + はずがない expresses a lack of expectation that something will happen or that something will be the case.
  • (1) Negative Sentence + はずだ
    • E.g. クラークさんはパーティーに行いかないはずだ。[I expect that Mr. Clark won’t come to the party.]
  • (2) Positive Sentence + はずがない
    • E.g. クラークさんはパーティーに行いくはずがない。[I don’t expect that Mr.Clark will come to the party.]

• Sentence + はず can also be used to convey the fact that the speaker has discovered or realized the reason for some state or event. For example, imagine that the subject cooks a steak and it smells horrible. Then the speaker looks at the package and discovers that the steak expired a month ago. In other words, the speaker has discovered the reason why the steak smells bad. He or she might say: “No wonder this smells bad! It’s expired!” In Japanese, this can be expressed as 臭くさいはずだ。消費期限しょうみきげんが切きれた。[No wonder this smells bad. It’s expired!] The concept of discovering or realizing a reason for something can also be expressed with わけだ. However, one major difference is that わけだ must be based on prior verbal context.
  • E.g. 高たかいはずだ。これは金きんだ。[No wonder this is expensive. It’s gold.]
  • E.g. 毎日まいにち三時間さんじかんも日本語にほんごを勉強べんきょうしているんですか。よくできるわけですね。[You’re studying Japanese for 3 hours every day? No wonder you’re so good.]

• When Sentence + はず is used as a relative clause that modifies a noun, Sentence + はず is followed by の.
  • E.g. 山口やまぐちさんに出だしたはずの手紙てがみが床ゆかに落おちていた。[The letter that I thought I had sent to Ms. Yamaguchi had actually fallen on the floor.]

Example Sentences:

クラークさんはパーティーに行いくはずだ。[I expect that Mr. Clark will go to the party.]

大野おおの先生せんせいはサンドラを知しっているはずです。[I expect that Mr. Ono knows Sandra.]

あの本ほんはたかかったはずだ。[I expect that book was expensive.]

そのアパートはきれいなはずです。[I expect that apartment is clean.]

カールソンさんは昔むかし先生せんせいだったはずだ。[I expect that Mr. Carlson used was a teacher in the past.]

WILD Examples:

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