Examples

1. 彼は漫画マニアだから、これらをもう全部読んだはずだよ。
   He has a mania for comic book(s) so I expect he read all these already.

2. この料理はおいしいはずだったが、焦げちゃって、まずくなった。
   This dish was expected to be tasty but it burned and became distasteful.

3. 色々予定してあるから、今年は楽しいクリスマスのはず。
   Because various things have been planned out, I expect a fun Christmas this year.

4. そう簡単に直せるはずがないよ。
   It’s not supposed to be that easy to fix.

5. 打合せは毎週２時から始まるはずじゃないですか？
   This meeting is supposed to start every week at 2 o’clock, isn’t it?

Here are more examples from the WWWJDIC. You may also want to check out the jeKai entry.

Vocabulary

絶対(ぜっ・たい) na-adj

absolutely, unconditionally

ある u-verb

to exist (inanimate)

強い(つよ・い) i-adj

strong

推奨(すい・しょう)

recommendation

する exception

to do

擦る(す・る) u-verb

to rub

行う(おこな・う) u-verb

to conduct, to carry out

何(なに／なん)

what

買う(か・う) u-verb

to buy

前(まえ)

front; before

本当(ほん・とう)

real

必要(ひつ・よう)

necessity

どう

how

いい i-adj

good

考える(かんが・える) ru-verb

to think

例え(たと・え)

example

国(くに)

country

国民(こく・みん)

people, citizen

騙す(だま・す) u-verb

to trick, to cheat, to deceive

思う(おも・う) u-verb

to think

預金者(よ・きん・しゃ)

depositor

大手(おお・て)

large corporation

銀行(ぎん・こう)

bank

相手(あい・て)

other party

取る(と・る) u-verb

to take

訴訟(そ・しょう)

litigation, lawsuit

起こす(お・こす) u-verb

to cause, to wake someone

ケース(ke e su)

case

出る(で・る) ru-verb

to come out

金融庁(きん・ゆう・ちょう)

Financial Services Agency

被害者(ひ・がい・しゃ)

victim

救済(きゅう・さい)

relief, aid

優先(ゆう・せん)

preference, priority, precedence

金融(きん・ゆう)

financing

機関(き・かん)

institution

犯罪(はん・ざい)

crime

防止(ぼう・し)

prevention

強化(きょう・か)

strengthen

促す(うなが・す) u-verb

to urge

判断(はん・だん)

judgement, decision

朝日(あさ・ひ)

Asahi

新聞(しん・ぶん)

newspaper

べき is a verb suffix used to describe something that is supposed to be done. This suffix is commonly defined as “should”, however, one must realize that it cannot be used to make suggestions like the sentence, “You should go to the doctor.” If you use べき, it sounds more like, “You are supposed to go to the doctor.” べき has a much stronger tone and makes you sound like a know-it-all telling people what to do. For making suggestions, it is customary to use the comparison 方がいい grammar instead. For this reason, this grammar is almost never used to directly tell someone what to do. It is usually used in reference to oneself where you can be as bossy as you want or in a neutral context where circumstances dictate what is proper and what is not. One such example would be a sentence like, “We are supposed to raise our kids properly with a good education.”

Unlike the はず grammar, there is no expectation that something is going to happen. Rather, this grammar describes what one should do in a given circumstance. In Japanese, you might define it as meaning 絶対ではないが、強く推奨されている.

There is very little of grammatical interest. べき works just like a regular noun and so you can conjugate it as べきじゃない、べきだった, and so on. The only thing to note here is that when you’re using it with する, the verb meaning “to do”, you can optionally drop the る from するべき to produce すべき. You can do this with this verb only and it does not apply for any other verbs even if the verb is written as する such as 擦る, the verb meaning “to rub”.

Examples

1. 何かを買う前に本当に必要かどうかをよく考えるべきだ。
   Before buying something, one should think well on whether it’s really necessary or not.

2. 例え国のためであっても、国民を騙すべきではないと思う。
   Even if it is, for example, for the country, I don’t think the country’s citizens should be deceived.

3. 預金者が大手銀行を相手取って訴訟を起こすケースも出ており、金融庁は被害者の救済を優先させて、金融機関に犯罪防止対策の強化を促すべきだと判断。（朝日新聞）
   With cases coming out of depositors suing large banks, the Financial Services Agency decided it should prioritize relief for victims and urge banks to strengthen measures for crime prevention.

Vocabulary

連用形(れん・よう・けい)

conjunctive form

早い(はや・い) i-adj

fast; early

帰る(かえ・る) u-verb

to go home

準備(じゅん・び)

preparations

する exception

to do

始める(はじ・める) ru-verb

to begin

思う(おも・う) u-verb

to think

出来る(で・き・る) ru-verb

to be able to do

行う(おこな・う) u-verb

to conduct, to carry out

試験(し・けん)

exam

合格(ごう・かく)

pass (as in an exam)

皆(みんな)

everybody

一生懸命(いっ・しょう・けん・めい)

with utmost effort

勉強(べん・きょう)

study

今後(こん・ご)

from now on

お客様(お・きゃく・さま)

guest, customer

対話(たい・わ)

interaction

窓口(まど・ぐち)

teller window, counter; point of contact

より

more

充実(じゅう・じつ)

fulfilled

行く(い・く) u-verb

to go

努力(ど・りょく)

effort

参る(まい・る) u-verb

to go; to come (humble)

Grammatically, べく is really a conjunctive form （連用形） of べき, similar to what the te-form does to connect another phrase. However, what needs mentioning here is that by changing it into a conjunctive and adding a predicate, the meaning of べく changes from the ordinary meaning of べき. While べき describes a strong suggestion, changing it to べく allows you to describe what one did in order to carry out that suggestion. Take a look that the following examples to see how the meaning changes.

1. 早く帰るべき。
   Should go home early.

2. 早く帰るべく、準備をし始めた。
   In trying to go home early, started the preparations.

As we can see in this example, adding the 準備をし始めた tells us what the subject did in order to carry out the action he/she was supposed to do.In this way we can define べく as meaning, “in order to” or “in an effort to”. Similarly, べく might mean the Japanese equivalent of しようと思って or できるように. This is a very seldom-used old-fashioned expression and is merely presented here to completely cover all aspects of べき.

Examples

1. 試験に合格すべく、皆一生懸命に勉強している。
   Everybody is studying very hard in an effort to pass the exam.

2. 今後もお客様との対話の窓口として、より充実していくべく努力してまいります
   We are working from here in an effort to provide a enriched window for customer interaction.

Vocabulary

未然形(み・ぜん・けい)

imperfective form

行う(おこな・う) u-verb

to conduct, to carry out

する exception

to do

ゴミ(go mi)

garbage

捨てる(す・てる) ru-verb

to throw away

安全(あん・ぜん)

safety

措置(そ・ち)

measures

忘れる(わす・れる) ru-verb

to forget

Moving on to yet another from of べき is べからず. This is undoubtedly related to the ず negative ending we learned in a previous section. However, it seems to be a conjugation of an old 未然形 of べから. I have no idea what that means and you don’t have to either. The only thing we need to take away from this is that べからず expresses the opposite meaning of べき as an action that one must not do. I suppose the short and abrupt ending of the ず form makes this more useful for laying out rules. In fact, searching around on google comes up with a bunch of べし･ベからず or “do’s and don’ts”. （べし is an older form of べき, which I doubt you’ll ever need.)

Examples

1. ゴミ捨てるべからず。
   You must not throw away trash.

2. 安全措置を忘れるべからず。
   You must not forget the safety measures.