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さぞ Japanese meaning | Kotomora

さぞ

さ

ぞ

Common wordJLPTN1Freq.FrequencyTop 20,000

Meanings

1

adverb

surely; no doubt; must

usually written using kana alone

Expresses the speaker's strong conjecture or empathetic certainty about another person's feelings or situation. Often used with ～でしょう or ～だろう.

さぞお疲つかれでしょう。
You must be tired.
さぞかし驚おどろいたことだろう。
I'm sure you were surprised.

Written forms

さぞUsage100%
Almost always written in kana; the kanji form 嘸 is rare.
嘸さぞUsage<1%
rarely-used kanji form
Rare kanji form; learners should use the kana spelling.

Kanji

嘸how, indeed, I dare say

Similar words

きっと
きっと is a general conjecture adverb ('surely', 'probably'), while さぞ is more empathetic and often used when imagining another person's state.
よほど
よほど means 'to a great extent' and is used for objective degree, whereas さぞ conveys the speaker's emotional inference.

Etymology

Derived from classical Japanese さぞ (然ぞ), a combination of さ (so, that way) and the emphatic particle ぞ. The exact historical development is uncertain, but it has been used as an adverb of conjecture since early modern Japanese.