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In english, someone trying to be amusing might say

```

    That thing is definitely a cat. Definitely. Probably. Hopefully. Please be 
    
```

or something cheesy along those lines to (try) to amuse someone else.

For those who don't see what's amusing about the sentence, the person saying
the sentence starts of by asserting that he is 100% sure, then his confidence
slowly tapers down till the point he is praying that it's true (of course, the
goal is just to instill some amusement). Hopefully, that gives enough context
of the sentence

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but the question is, how does
one say "hopefully" and "please be" in that context? Google translate tells me
it's "うまくいけば" and "してください", but that's definitely wrong especially when using
it in this context. Or does Japanese not have these kinds of words that are
used in this context

I'll remove this question if this is not the place to ask these kinds of
questions
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2020-02-07T16:47:38.727
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2020-02-11T16:02:47.613
2020-02-07T16:53:45.373
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slang
An equivalent of the word "hopefully" and "please be"in japanese when used in a certain context
> "That thing is definitely a cat. Definitely. Probably. Hopefully. Please
> be."

The easier one first -- "Please be". Native speakers' (or perhaps just my)
phrase choices would be:

> 「そうであってください！」 or
>
> 「そうでありますように！」

The 「そう」 part can be replaced by 「ネコ」 above.

Moving on to "hopefully"...

How this is said might differ greatly from one person to another. Natural-
sounding phrases would include:

> 「（そう）だといいん（だけど/ですけど）」 Can drop the 「そう」.
>
> 「そう願{ねが}って（る）」
>
> 「恐{おそ}らくそうだ（と思{おも}う）」
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2020-02-07T22:48:06.133
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2020-02-07T22:48:06.133
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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Well, when you say "in a certain context", I'm not unfamiliar with this
pattern of laughable line in Japanese stories either, except that the wording
would be not quite like a literal translation of English.

Examples (all assumed younger male (because you keep using "he") in casual
conversation):

> あれは猫に決まってるだろ。絶対……たぶん……きっと……だよな！？
>
> あれはどう見ても猫だろ。絶対……恐らく……そうだと言ってくれ、頼むから！
>
> あれは猫だろ、絶対。いや、気がする。……信じてる。……ワンチャンっ…！

FYI the last word ワンチャン{LHHHH} is a recent buzzword whose full meaning is like
"although the hope is slim but what if I've got one chance...?" or practically
a synonym of "with any luck". Don't pronounce it わんちゃん{HLLLL} because it means
"doggo".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-11T16:02:47.613
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