Ok, I know evey textbbook out there teaches that the volitional form translates to and is used by natives to mean “let’s”, but after years of listening it being used in the wild as well as knowing that the langauge often rerquires the listener make a lot of assumpions, to work properry, I just can’t shake this feeling that the volitional form very naturally, reliably and more closely translates to “will (do)”.
Is this just me?
2 comments
– I’ve never heard of “the volitional form” until now.
– However, although it means literally “let’s” or “will” as you mentioned, it’s more often used as “representing the state just before starting the thing” like the English “try to/attempt to”.
– For example, “飲もう” means literally “Let’s drink” but implies they haven’t drunk yet and are going to drink from that time. So, “飲もう” means “we don’t drink now but try to drink from now on, let’s go” etc.
Well it does often translate to “let’s ~” and when Japanese schools teach “let’s ~” in English they explain it as meaning the same thing as the volitional form.
There are certainly some uses where it’s not exactly that though, as there are in English. In English I can say “let’s all use our inside voices” and it is understood to mean “quiet down.” Similarly, I can say “what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” and it’s understood that I’m not exactly inviting people to go with me as much as I’m making a statement that we should go and will be going now.
Japanese teachers may say things like “現在進行形を知ろう” which has a bit of meaning somewhere between “let’s” and “we will,” but I don’t think that’s very different from “let’s” in English to be honest. If a person in a position of authority says “let’s do ~” it is understood as “we will do ~, because I am the person in charge and I say so” (at least in many cases).
There is also a “shall” interpretation; like if you see someone struggling and you say “手伝いましょうか？” to mean “shall I help you?”
Overall while the volition form in Japanese is not *solely* for expression desire that a group does something, it’s not just for that in English either. I would find it fairly strange if someone said something like “書きましょう” to express the sentiment “I will write,” but if the action (in this case writing) was something that concerned multiple people, then I could see it being used like that. For instance, if I was considering signing a contract and the other party managed to convince me that it’s worth doing, I might say “書きましょう” to indicate that “we” are proceeding with the contract even though physically it’s only me who is doing the writing.
Though this is a little more nuanced, you may even be able to use the volitional form to construct a relationship between yourself and other parties by expressing the sentiment that they’re somehow included in an action you’re taking. If I talk with coworkers about how I’m going to go for a run after work, I might say “走りましょう” to express that I’m mentally including them in that action, as if I’m running with some moral support from them or that I’ll tell them about the run when I get back. That is less of a grammatical function and more of a discourse function, though; using language to frame how we think of each other and the things we’re talking about, as opposed to literal grammatic expression of an idea.