でしょうdeshou“probably or right”

でしょう goes at the end of a sentence to turn a fact into a guess: 明日は晴れます (“It will be sunny tomorrow”) becomes 明日は晴れるでしょう (“It will probably be sunny tomorrow”). With a rising voice it asks for agreement, and with か it becomes a soft, polite question. It is JLPT N5 grammar and the voice of every Japanese weather forecast.

でしょう has three jobs: a polite guess (降るでしょう), a check for agreement (でしょう？), and a soft question (でしょうか).

What does でしょう mean?

でしょう tells the listener that the speaker is not stating a fact, but a judgment. It covers three uses:

• Probably (falling tone). 午後は雨が降るでしょう。 — It will probably rain in the afternoon. This is a prediction.
• …right? (rising tone). 疲れたでしょう？ — You must be tired, right? The speaker is fairly sure and wants the listener to agree.
• I wonder / could you tell me (with か). 駅はどこでしょうか。 — Where might the station be? This is a softer, more polite version of どこですか.

It is the polite partner of だろう. Both carry the same meaning, but でしょう fits polite speech, announcements and forecasts.

How to form でしょう

でしょう follows plain forms. Nouns and な-adjectives lose their だ first.

Quick attachment chart:

• Verb: 来るでしょう, 来ないでしょう, 来たでしょう
• い-adjective: 高いでしょう, 高くなかったでしょう
• な-adjective: 静かでしょう (not 静かなでしょう)
• Noun: 休みでしょう, 休みじゃないでしょう

The thing before でしょう is always plain, even though でしょう itself is polite. 来ますでしょう and 高いですでしょう are wrong: the politeness is already inside でしょう.

When is でしょう used?

Weather forecasts and announcements. Forecasters say 明日は全国的に晴れるでしょう every evening. Stating the weather as a certainty would be overconfident, so でしょう is the standard ending.

Polite guesses in conversation. When a coworker asks when Tanaka will arrive, you answer 三時ごろ来るでしょう. It is your estimate, stated politely.

Checking with the listener. でしょう？ with a rising voice is friendly and a little familiar. In fast speech it shortens to でしょ？. You use it with friends, family and people at your level: ほら、おいしいでしょ？ (“See? It’s good, right?”).

Soft questions with でしょうか. In shops, on the phone and with strangers, でしょうか sounds gentler than ですか. すみません、トイレはどこでしょうか is the kind of question a polite adult asks.

Adverbs pair naturally with でしょう. たぶん lowers your confidence (たぶん来るでしょう, “probably comes”), and きっと raises it (きっと来るでしょう, “I’m sure they’ll come”).

でしょう example sentences

In every sentence, the word right before でしょう is plain: 晴れる, 着いた, 混む, 休み, 疲れた, 止まる, 難しくない. The same sentences with です or ます before でしょう would be wrong.

Nuance of でしょう

It is a guess about things outside you. You use でしょう for the weather, other people and situations you cannot fully know. You do not use it for your own plans or feelings, which you know for sure. 私は明日行くでしょう sounds like you are predicting your own behavior from the outside.

Rising でしょう？ can push. 疲れたでしょう？ is kind: you are sympathizing. But でしょう？ can also mean “I told you so” or “Obviously, right?”, and toward a teacher or boss it can sound as if you are telling them what they think. With superiors, 〜ですよね？ is safer.

でしょうか is the polite question. Adding でしょうか instead of ですか softens a question by making it sound less direct. You are “wondering aloud” rather than demanding an answer, which makes it good for asking strangers.

💡 Certainty check: 降ります (it will rain) → きっと降るでしょう (surely) → 降るでしょう (probably) → たぶん降るでしょう (probably, less sure). At N4 you will add かもしれません (maybe) below all of these.

でしょう vs だろう

These carry the same meaning. The difference is who you are talking to and where.

The attachment rules are identical. Pick by matching the rest of your speech: if your sentences end in です and ます, use でしょう. If you speak in plain style or write an essay, use だろう. A common spoken middle ground is だろうと思います, which uses the plain form inside a polite sentence.

Common mistakes with でしょう

Is でしょう on the JLPT?

A typical grammar item gives 「あしたは　あめが　ふる（　）。」 and asks you to pick でしょう over ます or でした. In listening, a weather report might say 午前は晴れますが、午後は雨が降るでしょう, and the question asks what the afternoon will be like.

Practice questions for でしょう

Learning path for でしょう

Related grammar to review next

• だろう — the plain form of でしょう, with the same meaning and attachment rules
• ね — a gentler way to seek agreement than rising でしょう？
• か — the question particle that turns でしょう into the polite でしょうか
• かもしれない — a weaker guess, one step less certain than でしょう
• きっと — the adverb that makes a でしょう guess sound confident

Learn でしょう with Hane

Hane puts でしょう and だろう into real conversations, so you practice choosing by listener and hearing forecasts as guesses. Start practicing with Hane.