LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 103 JLPT N5

Probably (だろう・でしょう)

だろう and でしょう attach to the plain form and turn a flat statement into an educated guess, “probably.” They’re the same word at two politeness levels, だろう plain, でしょう polite, and both often pair with たぶん to make the guess explicit.

In Real Life
だろう and でしょう attach directly to the plain form with no extra connector, verbs and い-adjectives straight on, and な-adjectives or nouns straight on too,元気でしょう, 先生でしょう, no だ needed in between.
In Real Life
Rising intonation turns でしょう into a soft confirmation check, closer to “right?” than to a genuine guess. でしょうか does something different again, wondering aloud rather than asking the listener directly, gentler than a plain question.

Vocabulary

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