It’s pretty much the same “supposition / conjecture” meaning of だろう / でしょう that we learn pretty early on, but to use it on your own action like that is I think what gives it the funny interpretation. One need not suppose about their own actions.
2 Likes
Thanks, make perfect sense !
Come to think of it even in English we can be funny when conjecturing about our own actions “Will I eat this delicious cake… I wonder !”
Just saw an Asahi Super Dry commercial where a guy uses just だろう with nothing else.
Happens at 53 seconds
Obviously a beer commercial is exaggerated nonsense mostly, no one drinks like they do in commercials. But it’s not supposed to be the same kind of thing as “anime Japanese” either. Definitely falls in line with the idea that it’s not “classy” since it’s “drinking with the guys time”.
7 Likes
Thanks everyone for your engagement on this topic! I’ve read all the replies and they were helpful.
だろ？NG 
でしょ？This is ok.
やろ？ Yes - this is used in Kansai but carries the same general sense as だろ (young guys, or more generally, close friends who don’t care about seeming rough). It can be part of our BBS (defined below) vernacular if we want it to be.
[sentence] or [そう]+だろう？やろう？でしょ？ 
In most excited conversations one can’t really get in more than a grunt or two 「うん」so this is different usage.
-
@Jonapedia I’ve heard of this foreign men speaking like Japanese women phenomenon, but I’ve usually attributed it to the way foreigners are taught Japanese in schools with a focus on です・ます forms. We are all partially products of our teachers though and so I don’t want to discount what you’re saying.
-
@Leebo Thanks for this Asahi video. This usage is exactly what I was talking about. Can you make out what his colleague is saying at 0:11? (Right before ですよね)
Well, after all is said and done, it looks like interjections should then be:
ですよね? 
でしょ？ だろう？/やろ？
Placed in the order of politely interjecting with agreement (left) to “BBS” barbaric butt scratcher style (right).
In closing, I also get grumbled at for singing なんでだろう〜
I don’t argue about that one though.
1 Like
そうっすよね福山さん
Colloquial contraction of そうですよね
1 Like
The guy wearing black in the commercial kind of give me an “anime tough guy” vibe though 
Very low voice, almost rolling the r, the little grunt he does at 0:14 when giving the beer… Doesn’t feel out of place for him to go だろ, no ?
Remind me of grizzlyさん from shirokuma cafe
I also found an example of だろう clearly used as an interjection in a Let’s Play:
75歳のお爺ちゃんが主人公の神ゲー『 シニアクエスト 』 - YouTube (at 33:13)
3 Likes
You mean he’s from Kansai? 
Plus, they kinda set the tone when they used “This is me” for a beer commercial. lol
1 Like
The ろ ending is used in the strong imperative. By using it you are telling someone what to do incredibly directly and as we all know, the Japanese are very rarely direct.
This means that if you do use it, it will come off as quite rude. I would stick to the しょ ending because, whilst it technically is used for making a suggestion, you can use it as you would the imperative and it will come across much more polite.
(I should make it clear that I am simply hypothesising that perhaps the sound similarity may be the reason for perceived rudeness. E.g. the way よん is favoured over し for the pronunciation of 四 because of し’s association with 死ぬ, meaning ‘to die’.)
There’s no relationship between だろう/だろ でしょう/でしょ and the imperative though…? Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but you’re saying that because ろ is used in imperatives for ichidan verbs, the rudeness of だろ is related to that?
6 Likes
I am suggesting that it may have something to do with the correlation of the pronunciation.
To give another example: the pronunciation of 四 is more commonly よん because of the similarity between the sounds of し and 死ぬ.
I am suggesting that the same thing could occur when it comes to だろ and could be a reason for a perceived rudeness.
Nevertheless, I should have prefaced my post by saying it was a guess.
Seeing this just reminds me how I’d probably get dinged by Bunpro if I wrote だろ or でしょ instead of だろう or でしょう.
2 Likes
And here’s another commercial with just だろ, not だろう
Admittedly more anime-esque than the beer one, lol.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.