日本語道場

Nihongo Dojo — N3 → N2

Grammar

N3

~ことだろう

~koto darou

I bet, surely

When to use it

Use ~ことだろう in written or formal spoken Japanese to voice a confident inference about something you can't directly verify — how a client feels, how a market will move, how much effort a team put in. It carries more emotional weight and rhetorical polish than ~だろう alone, so it suits reports, speeches, and carefully worded email rather than casual chat. It pairs naturally with さぞ, きっと, and どんなに (the latter giving an exclamatory "how ~ it must be!" reading).

Formation

  • Verb: plain (dictionary / past / negative) form + ことだろう → 増えることだろう/増えたことだろう
  • i-adjective: plain form + ことだろう → 厳しいことだろう
  • na-adjective: ~な + ことだろう → 不安なことだろう
  • Noun: noun + であることだろう (stiff, comparatively rare; 名詞+だろう is normal instead)
  • Written-style variant: ~ことであろう. Adverbs さぞ・きっと・どんなに・いかに often precede it.

Examples

  • The people on site must have had a very hard time of it.

  • Competition will surely grow even fiercer next term.

  • The client is no doubt bewildered by the sudden spec change.

  • If we land the order, imagine how the office will erupt.

  • On these terms, the price negotiations will surely drag on.