[SarahH]

Often I use "suddenly' in English and am wondering about the equivalent in Japanese.  The Dictionary has a lot of words, but I don't know what the differences are. Please help!よく英語の”suddenly"を使います。日本でこの同じ言葉は何ですか。辞書にたくさん言葉がありますが、違うのはわかりません。そこの言葉が：俄に『にわかに』不意に　『ふいに』屹度 『きっと』突如　『とつじょ』急に　『きゅうに』行き成り　『いきなり』偶然　『ぐうぜん』忽ち　『たちまち』手伝ってくださいませんか。ありがとうございますさら

[nola]

• Hello Sarah! I wasn't sure about the differences for several of these myself, so I did some googling. These are my findings while browsing chiebukuro/hinative/ALC:たちまち an intentional action（similar to すぐに）彼はたちまち英語がうまくなった He made rapid progress in English.にわかに more formal その提案にはにわかに賛同はできない I cannot readily consent to that proposal.不意に unexpectedly　不意に問われて答えに困った I was at a loss for an answer.　（ふと is more common in conversation)偶然 chance/coincidence　駅で偶然出会った　We bumped into each other at the station.突如 seems to be common in novels and is not used in conversation. 1224年に突如として急死した (He) died suddenly in 1224.The difference between 急に・いきなり・突然 is a bit more subtle. いきなり seems to be used to say that an action took a shorter time than expected, while the others are not expected.「彼は家から○○飛び出してきた」He suddenly flew out of the house. You can use 急に・いきなり・突然  because we have no expectation of time.「第一問からいきなり詰まってしまった。」I suddenly got stuck on the first question , You can use いきなり but not 急に・突然 because the person got stuck faster than expected (There is a time expectation).For 急に vs 突然, 急に is used more widely.　おなかが急に痛くなった My stomach suddenly started hurting - (It's unexpected, but is quite common and not shocking. )突然空から人が降ってきた A person suddenly fell from the sky - (It's definitely surprising and not something you see every day.)急に用事ができた　Something suddenly came up. (This might have taken more than a moment but was unexpected)突然路地から子供が飛び出して来た」A child suddenly jumped into the alley. (In a moment)Please correct me if I am wrong. 勉強になりました！

[SarahH]

教えてくれてありがとうございました！勉強します。

[Masahiro Arai]

The word 'Suddenly' remind me of The Beatles song 'Yesterday'.     Suddenly I'm not a half a man I used to be   There's a shadow hanging over me   Oh yesterday came suddenly.I have seen a lot of Japanese translation of this song but seldom seen a good translation. Some examples of translation are;1．　今まで僕は中途半端じゃなかったけど　　突然僕を暗い闇でおそったんだぁ　　その昨日が突然やってきんだ２．突然に僕は以前の半分以下の人間になってしまったよ　　影が僕につきまとう　　昨日は突然やってきた３．突然僕は昔と全然違う人間みたいに　　影に覆われているんだ　　Oh　突然やってきたのさThese Japanese translation are done by Japanese people. Yet they don't make sense as a Japanese sentence. Just recently I found the translation which make sense as a Japanese sentence. This person doesn't translate suddenly as　突然  yesterday as 昨日 and shadow as　影、闇。　Here is the much better translation.なんの前触れもなく　　昔の自分とは比べものにならない　つまらない人間になってしまった　　辛い気持ちがずっと消えない　　別れる時がいきなりやってきたから　　　　モデレーターに通知する  [/font][/size][/font][/size]