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. 話すはすだ [I expect that X speaks]
- E.g. 食べるはずだ [I expect that X eats]
- E.g. 高いはずだ [I expect that X is expensive]
- な-Adjective stem + [だ / だった] + はずだ
- E.g. 静かだはずだ [I expect that X is quiet]
- Noun + [の / だった] + はずだ
- E.g. 先生のはずだ [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: あの本は高かったはずだ。[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くはずがない。[I don’t expect that Mr.Clark will come to the party.]
- (1) Negative Sentence + はずだ
- 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 臭いはずだ。消費期限が切れた。[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. 高いはずだ。これは金だ。[No wonder this is expensive. It’s gold.]
- E.g. 毎日三時間も日本語を勉強しているんですか。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. 山口さんに出したはずの手紙が床に落ちていた。[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くはずだ。[I expect that Mr. Clark will go to the party.]
大野先生はサンドラを知っているはずです。[I expect that Mr. Ono knows Sandra.]
あの本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先生だったはずだ。[I expect that Mr. Carlson used was a teacher in the past.]
WILD Examples:
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