Saturday, April 16, 2011

Japanese grammar question (deshou)?

Question:


もっとちゃんと勉強(べんきょう)したほうがいいでしょう。translated as: You should study harder.

i thought the whole point of "deshou" was to illustrate uncertainty, but this sounds rather strong like a statement. A bit confused about that.

Any clarification would be great. Thanks.

Answer:


The original sentence includes ほうがいい, which means "it's better .../ you'd better..."
so, if you leave "deshou" out, it still won't sound that strong as "you should study harder"

When you look at "deshou" part (IN THIS SENTENCE), there are two meanings;

1. I think that .... (The speaker's opinion)
2. You might .... (possibility)
---------
でしょう in this context is different from the expression "..., right?"

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