What does じゃあ at the end of a sentence mean?

Question

そろそろ学校に行く時間じゃあ？

Is it like ですか? Or like じゃん/じゃない?

I've thought it could be that じゃ that is the same as だ used by characters who are old, but this one is young.

Answer 1

If you understand this:

そろそろ学校に行く時間じゃない？
Isn't it time you go to school?

Then you can think the sentence in question is exactly the same except that ない is omitted. じゃ is normally used with negation, so you don't always have to say ない after じゃ.

じゃ is a colloquial variant of では, so you can say this, too:

そろそろ学校に行く時間では？
Isn't it time you go to school?

A word for negation like ない is not always explicitly said in Japanese, and you have to get used to this fact. See also:

• Please explain the use of では in this particle cluster
• The reason for using 何も+negative, but 何でも+positive

じゃ is also an old man's version of the copula だ, but it's a different thing. For example, if a stereotypical wise old man says "わしは先生じゃ!" in a manga, it means 私は先生だ ("I am a teacher"), but if a young person says "私は先生じゃ!" with a surprised look, it means 私は先生じゃない ("I am not a teacher").