I have a question about the above sentence I encountered somewhere - きっと translates as "certainly, surely" whereas でしょう is used, as far as I know, as "probably, it seems". Isn't it contradictory then to have both in one sentence?
This question comes up so often that I have a cut-and-paste response.
not really, but I can see where you’re going. きっと…でしょう is actually a fairly common pattern, and can be seen in sentences like: 今日の内に、屹度ゴジラは来るでしょう。 (Godzilla will definitely come sometime today.); 屹度彼も同じ様に思ったでしょう。 (Surely he too felt the same way.); and 彼は屹度戻ってこなくては行けないでしょう。 (I'm sure that he'll have to come back.)
You could argue it can be made to work even in English, in the sense that something "may be certain", i.e. you suppose it could be deduced from the situation that it's certain, but you yourself don't feel confident enough to affirm it.
でしょう is the 未然形 (みぜんけい) of です. Basically, the 未然形 is the "before it happens" form. Or the "still not happened" form. So the base meaning is not exactly "probably, it seems". It's more like a contextual meaning.
Anyway, in this case, more than "probably, it seems", it's like "right?". For example
絶対に来るでしょう? -> Surely, you will come... right? Or even: SURELY... you will come... right? (as in "Please don't change your mind at the last moment" or something like that)
It's like seeking a light confirmation after a strong assertion. It's not that uncommon even in English, I think. And it's really common in japanese. でしょう/だろう are really everywhere and often used to soften your tone (to be more polite, respectful, not too much assertive, etc).
