Yesterday, when we were talking about all sorts of jackets, coats, jumpers, trainers, and all that good stuff, we came across this sentence:

このパーカー、今日買ったんだ。かっこいいでしょ。
この　パーカー、　きょう　かった　んだ。　かっこいい　でしょ。
I bought this hoodie [sweatshirt] today. It's cool, yeah?
Literally: "this + hoodie + today + bought. + cool + でしょ"

It got me thinking about the different usages and nuances of words like でしょう、でしょ、だろう、だろ, etc.

I have a love-hate relationship with でしょう.

Love, because it was one of the first bits of Japanese grammar that I learned.

Hate, because for years after that I kept learning new (and confusing) uses nuances, and meanings that shattered my understanding of this word.

I’ll rant about this later, but the main cause of my confusion was that でしょう has several different meanings, nuances, and forms, but they don’t teach them all together in Japanese schools or books.

I have a few theories about why teachers would do this to us, but the best one I have is that different meanings of でしょう show up in different JLPT tests. So they teach them separately. Also, they completely leave out the rough, rude-sounding variants that we’ll look at tomorrow.

Here are the different types of でしょう：

1. Classic でしょう
- a. Seeking Agreement (ii.)
- b. Seeking Verification (i.)
- c. Expressing Sympathy (i.)

2. Inward でしょう (iii.)

3. でしょう of Conjecture (iv.)
- a. Weather でしょう
- b. General Conjecture

Oh, and pretty much all of those are interchangeable with だろう, which we’ll talk about later. And both of those can be shortened to でしょ and だろ, respectively. (I'll explain later. I promise.)

So now that I’ve given you a scary (and largely meaningless) list of meanings, I’ll try to simplify this:

でしょう （also, its rougher brother だろう）attaches to the end of sentences.

Translating uber-simply, it means “right?” or “don’t you think?”

i. Sometimes this means “right?” in a rhetorical sense (i.e. the speaker is not asking for confirmation), such as in “You heard him, right? Let’s get to work!”

ii. Other times it means “right?” in a genuine sense (i.e. the speaker is asking for confirmation), such as in “He won’t be mad that I forgot his birthday, right?”

iii. Other times it sounds like the speaker is talking to himself, like saying, “Ah, the weather was so nice that day, right? I wish I could go back there.” (We’re starting to veer away from natural English now!)

iv. Other times it means “most likely” or “probably.”

So yeah... lots of meanings.

Today we're only looking at i. and ii.

Today, we are only looking at...

Classic でしょう

As I mentioned, there are three types of “Classic でしょう.”

They are:

a. Seeking Agreement (ii.)
b. Seeking Verification (i.)
c. Expressing Sympathy (i.)

OK. Go time!

You’re ready, "right"? ^^

a) Seeking Agreement for One’s Opinion

Uber-Quick Note: In this lesson, we’ll be using not only でしょう, but also the shorter, more assertive でしょ, as well as だろう and だろ. For the meantime, it’s pretty safe to assume that they’re all the same. Only, the shorter versions are more assertive and blunt. Also, だろう and だろ sound more masculine/rough than でしょう and でしょ. I’ll talk about their subtle differences in tomorrow’s lesson.

The important point to note for this usage of でしょう is that the speaker is asking a genuine question. They want the listener to verbally acknowledge what they are saying.

So...

明日から５連休なんだ。いいでしょう。
あした　から　ご　れんきゅう　なんだ。　いい　でしょう。
I have five days off starting tomorrow. Lucky, right? [Jealous? // Cool, huh?]
Literally: “tomorrow + from + five + consecutive holidays + なんだ. + good + でしょう”

俺の車かっこいいだろ。
おれ　の　くるま　かっこいい　だろ。
My car is pretty cool, don’t you think?
Literally: “I + の + car + cool + だろ.”
Note: What a lame thing to say.

This is also the type of でしょう we saw in our example from yesterday:

このパーカー、今日買ったんだ。かっこいいでしょ。
この　パーカー、　きょう　かった　んだ。　かっこいい　でしょ。
I bought this hoodie [sweatshirt] today. It's cool, yeah?
Literally: "this + hoodie + today + bought. + cool + でしょ"

b) Seeking Verification from the Listener

This is almost the same as we saw above, where we had “Seeking Agreement” from a listener.

Only in this case, we’re not really asking the listener to agree. Rather, we’re just asking them to notice or verify a fact.

They don’t need to say anything in response, as this is often a rhetorical question.

This usage is like saying, “So you know how the party’s tomorrow, right? I was hoping you could bring some food.” The “...right?” in this sentence is not actually asking for the listener’s opinion.

Let’s call it “Rhetorical でしょ.”

...which is different than saying something like, “This 7-layer dip is the delicious, right? (Please praise my dip-making skills... or die.)” That’s “Seeking Agreement,” which we just saw.

For example...

さっき言ったでしょ。
さっき　いった　でしょ。
I just told you.
Literally: “a little while ago + said + でしょ”

今日飲み会でしょ？飲みすぎないようにね。
きょう　のみかい　でしょ？　のみすぎない　よう　に　ね。
The drinking party is today, right? Try not to drink too much. [Be careful not to drink too much.]
Literally: “today + drinking party + でしょ? + don’t drink too much + ように + ね.”
Note: I didn’t translate ように because it’s a grammatical function. I’m sure it’ll have its own lesson at some point, but the short version is “VERB + ように” for “try to VERB” or “try not to VERB” or “I hope VERB” or “I hope it doesn’t VERB.”

Finally, we have...

c) Expressing Sympathy for the Listener

This last usage of “Classic でしょう” is when we use a rhetorical でしょう in order to show sympathy for a listener’s feelings or situation.

Like this:

よく出来たね。大変だったでしょう。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　でしょう。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + でしょう.”

Note: I suppose I could have put, “It was tough, right?” which would be a more literal translation, but that sounds like a genuine question to me, where as でしょう has the nuance of being a rhetorical question here. The listener does not necessarily need to agree or verify anything, though they can if they want. I tried to slip this nuance in with “must have been.”

What’s the Difference Between でしょう and だろう？！

I’m guessing that some of you are freaking out as I randomly switch out でしょう、でしょ、だろう、 and だろ.

I briefly mentioned above that they are interchangeable. The meaning doesn’t change much from switching them in an out, here.

I’d translate all of these sentences the same way (probably):

よく出来たね。大変だったでしょう。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　でしょう。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + でしょう.”

よく出来たね。大変だったでしょ。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　でしょ。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + でしょ.”

よく出来たね。大変だったっしょ。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　っしょ。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + っしょ.”

よく出来たね。大変だっただろう。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　だろう。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + だろう.”

よく出来たね。大変だっただろ。
よく　できた　ね。　たいへん　だった　だろ。
Great job. It must have been tough work.
Literally: “well + completed ( = was able to do) + ね. tough / difficult + was + だろ.”

But what about the nuances?!

The nuances?!?!?!

Yeah, nuances change a bit.

Let’s talk about it tomorrow!