When do you use deshou?

pauro12 · 28 May 2013

I've been using deshou so many times, but I used it as something that ask for an approval of an action like synonymous to 'isn't it'. but I've heard native speakers use this in statements as well like it was interchangeable with desu.. So my question is what are the usage and true meaning of deshou? Thanks!

Andromedashun · 28 May 2013

It means the speaker express a degree of polite / uncertainty to the sentence. Something the same as ''kamoshirenai'' but a bit weaker.

tokkyo · 28 May 2013

でしょう is actually stronger than かもしれない..you could say かもしれない is like 50% probability, and でしょう is 70%, but that's arbitrary.
In any case でしょう has a few meanings, but the main ones are:

-...right? especially when intonation rises at the end. Ex. 買うでしょう? You're going to buy it, right? (sometimes colloquially written でしょ?)

-probably...風邪を引いたから行かないでしょう He caught a cold so he probably won't go. Compare this with 風邪を引いたから行かないかもしれません He caught a cold so he might not go.

-a pseudo-future tense. 明日雨が降るでしょう (heard all the time on weather forecasts) = Tomorrow it's going to rain. OR It will be rain tomorrow. This one is a bit harder to explain usage-wise. A native can probably give you better examples.

pauro12 · 28 May 2013

I was quite so sure that I've heard native speakers use it as a statement, not as a doubtful question like 'isn't it', etc.. Something like, 'you're right!', or 'it is!'.. the subtitle goes like this though as I have remembered, " You know that this would gonna happened." Then when said in japanese, the ending of the phrase is deshou, and the tone of the voice is something like it was said as a statement.. Thanks for the help though!

Andromedashun · 28 May 2013

As I said before, it add politeness to the sentence by making them less direct, so ofcourse it can be used with statement. The degree of politeness is variable with this kind of auxiliary though. There is a lot of similar word forms like ''souda'', ''rashii'', ''to omou''...etc

pauro12 · 28 May 2013

Andromedashun said:
As I said before, it add politeness to the sentence by making them less direct, so ofcourse it can be used with statement. The degree of politeness is variable with this kind of auxiliary though. There is a lot of similar word forms like ''souda'', ''rashii'', ''to omou''...etc

はい、わかりましたせんぱい・ありがとう御座います！！

Toritoribe · 28 May 2013

pauro12 said:
I was quite so sure that I've heard native speakers use it as a statement, not as a doubtful question like 'isn't it', etc.. Something like, 'you're right!', or 'it is!'.. the subtitle goes like this though as I have remembered, " You know that this would gonna happened." Then when said in japanese, the ending of the phrase is deshou, and the tone of the voice is something like it was said as a statement.. Thanks for the help though!

What you heard would be こうなるって知ってた（ん）でしょ or something along the line, wouldn't it? It's basically for confirmation, as in the first examle in tokkyo-san's explanation, and when it's said with the falling intonation, it can have a (soft) accusing tone, something like "I'm sure you must know ~. Don't you?". This expression is not for politeness or guess, so it's not interchangeable with そうだ, らしい or ～と思う. (I suppose the speaker is female, since males usually use だろ instead.)

pauro12 · 29 May 2013

Toritoribe said:
What you heard would be こうなるって知ってた（ん）でしょ or something along the line, wouldn't it? It's basically for confirmation, as in the first examle in tokkyo-san's explanation, and when it's said with the falling intonation, it can have a (soft) accusing tone, something like "I'm sure you must know ~. Don't you?". This expression is not for politeness or guess, so it's not interchangeable with そうだ, らしい or ～と思う. (I suppose the speaker is female, since males usually use だろ instead.)

This is what I've thought as well, but I was confused with the tone of the voice as it sounds like it was really a statement... But anyways, I guess this one is correct as you've thought and thus it makes sense based on the explanation.. And I guess, there must have been a little problem with the english translation there maybe.. ありがとう御座います！☝

When do you use deshou?

pauro12

先輩

Andromedashun

先輩

tokkyo

先輩

pauro12

先輩

Andromedashun

先輩

pauro12

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

pauro12

先輩

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