ぜStrong emphasis (friendly or familiar), !

ぜ is an emphatic sentence ending particle in Japanese that is used in a similar way to よ. It emphasizes what the speaker is saying, but is not as strong as similar particles like ぞ.

ぜ may be used at the end of any sentence, so long as the previous word is in its plain form, this includes when following auxiliary verbs. In the case of nouns, ぜ will follow the auxiliary verb だ, rather than coming directly after the noun.

ぜ will be used when the speaker is directing a statement at a person who they are familiar with, or are on close terms with. Although often having a hint of friendliness, ぜ may also be seen when the speaker is making a statement to a rival, or someone with whom they have a similar type of relationship. This is unlike ぞ, which may be directed at anybody. Despite this difference, both particles are almost exclusively used by men.

Fun Fact

Rather than being specifically different from the sentence-ending particle ぞ, ぜ actually originates from a combination of ぞ followed by え. え being an alternative form of the sentence-ending particle い, which is seen in forms like だい, かい. As い is primarily used in a 'friendly' or 'familiar' way, ぜ keeps the same nuance. In short, ぞえ became ぜ, which then became its own word over time.