A question about 待ち

I am trying to understand the differences between these sentences, but my grasp of Japanese grammar is 足りない.

Could you help me?

  1. ここで待ちます。
  2. ここで待つでしょう。
  3. ここで待っています。
  4. ここで待ってるよ。

I want to say “I will wait here.”

I’ve never heard [non-past] + でしょう in real life for this purpose (declaring your own future intent). Though I’ve heard it used as a translation of the English future tense in English classes at Japanese middle school. If anyone else has heard it, I’d be curious.

3 and 4 are roughly the same thing, except different levels of politeness. They mean that you are actively already waiting. Though in English you could still say that sentence “I will wait here” even if you were already waiting there

If you use the non-past, you’re emphasizing the future waiting you will do.

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So from the research I’ve done so far, I’m getting the following information:

  1. ここで待ちます。 Polite non-past. “I wait here.” or “I will wait here.”
  2. ここで待つでしょう。 Predictive(?). “I will (probably) wait here.”
  3. ここで待っています。 Polite present progressive. “I am waiting here.”
  4. ここで待ってるよ。 Plain present progressive (emphatic) . “I am waiting right here.”

If anything looks wrong or if I’m missing some nuance, please let me know.

The last two sentences were recommended by native speakers as a good way of expressing my desired meaning. The second one was suggested by another Japanese learner as a better alternative to the first sentence, but I wasn’t sure if the guy knew what he was talking about.

Wait, I just noticed that the second one has a small っ, not a large つ.

I have no idea what that’s supposed to be.

I was reading it as 待つでしょう.

Perhaps just a typo or misreading by the OP or the individual that recommended it to them.

Whoops … that’s my fault. I thought I made a typo, so I “fixed” it.

Unfixing now …

Ah, I see.

Anyway, the fact is that all 4 of them will be understood by a Japanese person, but as I noted, I think #2 is the least natural of them.

The flexibility of the meaning of the English sentence means that lots of potential translations exist.

Thank you Leebo. I appreciate the confirmation. I’m starting to understand more, but I always worry that I’m missing something obvious. I still have so many holes in my grammar knowledge and not enough practical experience to draw upon.

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