adverbial N1 uncommon politewritten
さぞ — surely
さぞ
Meaning
- surely / no doubt / I can well imagine — the speaker empathetically imagines how someone must feel; pairs with でしょう／だろう／ことでしょう
Key sentence
遠くから来て、さぞお疲れでしょう。
Having come all this way, you must be tired.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adverb fronting a clause, closed by だろう／でしょう／ことでしょう | さぞ(かし) … でしょう |
Examples
第一志望に合格して、さぞうれしかっただろう。
Getting into her first-choice school, she must have been so happy.
突然の知らせに、さぞ驚かれたことと思います。
You must have been quite startled by the sudden news.
Easily confused with
Notes
- さぞかし is an emphatic variant. Almost always about another person's feelings, not plain facts.
See さぞ in real sentences
Jengo shows さぞ the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar.