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Both ね and でしょう can be used to form tag questions to confirm an opinion like so:

1) 疲れたでしょう。　(more of a guess based on evidence / polite)

2) 疲れたね。 (more forceful / the speaker is more certain)

3) 疲れたでしょうね。 (forceful, but polite)

For the purposes of these questions you can imagine that these sentences are spoken to someone who has just done something physically exerting (like moving boxes for 7 hours).

Am I right about these guesses? Can anyone elaborate more?

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  • Similar ways to say similar things. I think your examples sum it up well, on the surface. But, tone can come into play though and mix things up a bit. – kiss-o-matic Jan 5 '15 at 18:50
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    +1 but not a simple question at all. Depends so much on who is talking to whom, their relationship, gender, age and importantly, intonation. – l'électeur Jan 6 '15 at 1:59
  • (I once tried answering a 〜だろう／〜でしょう question describing the intonation in text, and when I look back at it now, it's completely unclear what I'm describing really. Probably the right way to do it is with recordings.) – Darius Jahandarie Jan 6 '15 at 8:41
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When a speaker says でしょう, he or she puts more weights on the guess or asking.

When a speaker says ね, he or she expects an agreement from the listener. It is slightly more assertive (or forceful as you say) than でしょう. If you want to add the politeness, you can rephrase it by saying 疲れましたね。.

However, でしょうね is more assertive than the two above, and the speaker might even not expect the listener to respond.

Note that 疲れたでしょうね。 is slightly unnatural. I would say お疲れでしょうね。.

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    why is お疲れでしょうね more natural than 疲れたでしょうね? – Ataraxia Sep 10 '16 at 15:59

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