だろう・でしょう "It seems 〇〇, right?"

Introduction

“Hey! Check out this picture of a T-Rex I drew. Pretty cool, right? W-what? You don’t think so? Well… what about this mashup of Spongebob and Garen from League of Legends that I also drew? Pretty neat, huh? WHAT! You don’t like this one either!!?? Okay, how about-”

Don’t you wish you could have this conversation in Japanese? After today’s lesson, you’ll be able to say “pretty cool, right?” with the utmost confidence. Let’s get to it.

I’m Valid, Right? RIGHT??

Structure

• 

  Statementだろう・でしょう
  Example:
  → 彼かれはやさしいでしょう？
  "Isn’t he kind?”

だろう and でしょう are both expressions that exert a certain amount of “right???”-ness on the listener/reader. In other words, they’re used when you want to “suggest” something. The level of “suggestion” that you exert can differ dramatically, but that’s the essence of it. In a similar way, they can be used to state something that you feel is likely. The difference between these two usages might not seem clear right now, but after we look at some examples, I think it will be crystal.