Using でしょう And Its Variants

Lately it's really hard to think of good post titles that don't just have the Japanese grammar point stuck in there. Oh well.

Anyway, でしょう is a word that comes at the end of a sentence, similar to particles like よ or ね, to indicate a certain feeling about the rest of the sentence. It can mean a range of things, such as:

"Probably"
"I wonder"
"It seems"
"I guess"
"Right?"

What it means all depends on intonation and context, like so many other things in this wonderful language.

でしょう is placed after short form verbs. With nouns and adjectives of both types, there is no special conjugation performed - it's simply placed after the word just like よ or ね.

明日ライトに会うでしょう。
I'll probably see Laito tomorrow.

明日ライトに会わないでしょう。
I probably won't see Laito tomorrow.

外は暑いでしょう。
It's probably hot outside.

外は暑くないでしょう。
It's probably not hot outside.

有名な犬でしょう。
It's probably a famous dog.

有名な犬じゃないでしょう。
It's probably not a famous dog.

Sentences can also end in でしょうか to ask a question and sound like they're open to another person's opinion. This is a sentence from Genki:

日本語と韓国語と、どちらのほうが難しいでしょうか。
Which would you say is more difficult, Japanese or Korean?

The other two forms of this word are でしょ and だろう, both of which sound more casual. Any form can be used at the end of a sentence to say something like "...right?", in the sense of confirming information. An upward intonation should be used in that case.

東京に行ったことがあるでしょ？
You've been to Tokyo, right?

明日働くだろう？
You work tomorrow, don't you?