文法の説明

N4 レッスン 7: 9/18

のだろうかI wonder...

Versions without ん/の are also acceptable but sound old-fashioned

使い方・接続

Verb +（の(1)）+ だろうか
［い］Adjective +（の(1)）+ だろうか
［な］Adjective +（な + の(1)）+ だろうか
Noun +（な + の(1)）+ だろうか

(1) ん

詳細

  • 使用域

    一般

「～のだろうか」の情報

When だろう (the conjugated auxiliary verb) is grouped with か (the question particle), it presents the statement before it as something that the speaker is unsure about. In this way, it sounds similar to 'I wonder if (A)' in English.

To use this construction, the statement before だろうか must be nominalized (turned into a noun-phrase). This is done through the use of の, or なの (in the case of な-Adjectives and nouns).

Despite the grammatical rule relating to nominalization using の (or なの), this part of the phrase is often omitted.

だろうか is quite masculine, so in order to sound more polite/ladylike, でしょうか may also be used instead.

Caution

Although だろうか is quite masculine, it does not strictly mean that でしょうか is feminine. でしょうか may be used confidently by either women or men.

Fun Fact

Like だろう, だろうか may be used to ask a question, or simply to express the speaker's inner thoughts.

However, だろうか is most commonly used to express a personal 'I wonder', in a similar way to かな. Because of this, even if it is used as a question, the listener may assume that you are not specifically looking for an answer from them.

関連

例文

--:--

    彼(かれ)の都合(つごう)が悪(わる)いだろうか。

    I wonder if it is bad timing for him?

    もうすぐ時間(じかん)だろうか。

    I wonder if it is about time.

    練習(れんしゅう)したら、うまくなるだろうか。

    I wonder if I will get better at it if I practice.

    犯人(はんにん)が見(み)つかるだろうか。

    I wonder if the criminal will be found.

    この小屋(こや)に虫(むし)が居(い)るのだろうか。

    I wonder if there are any bugs in this storehouse.

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「～のだろうか」に関する文法ディスカッション

最近の返信 (合計6件)

  • Pushindawood

    Pushindawood

    I wonder…

    Structure

    • Phrase + (の/ん) + だろうか
    • Verb + ( の / ん ) + だろうか
    • Noun + (な の /な ん ) + だろうか

    Versions without ん/の are also acceptable but sound old-fashioned

    [casual・masculine]

    View on Bunpro

  • Aggelitus

    Aggelitus

    I’m a bit curious about the part where versions without ん/の sound old-fashioned. Several of the examples omit the の.

    How common is it to omit the の in real life? In what context would you do it?

  • deltacat3

    deltacat3

    I am also curious about this

  • Asher

    Asher

    It is not so much that it is old fashioned, than it is just a feature of ん being used very frequently in spoken Japanese, due to it forming a nice sound link between words and phrases. As it also nominalizes the phrase before it (creates a noun-phrase), there is that function as well. Either the form with or without ん/の may be used confidently, without much fear of sounding strange.

  • Warrie

    Warrie

    What is the difference between のだろうか and かな?

  • Fuga

    Fuga

    Hey there @Warrie !

    They both mean the same thing, but they are used in different situations. かな is used in more casual situations, like texting and casual conversations, while のだろうか is usually used in writing. のだろうか is also casual, but かな sounds more casual, if that makes sense!

  • Warrie

    Warrie

    Makes sense, thank you! Maybe this info should be added to the explanations in BP. I had this question a couple of times with words with the same meaning and each time Google helped me out to explain the difference, in this case I just couldn’t find an answer.

    Or for example when I give かな as the answer and then I get a ‘let’s try a different grammatical structure here’ reply, change that into ‘let’s make it slightly more formal’ or something like that?

「～のだろうか」について質問がありますか？ 話し合ったり、質問をしてみんなで学びましょう！

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