# Suddenly



## Bienvenidos

Hi everyone,

   I know that each language has an interesting way of expressing "suddenly." How is it said in your language?

Persian:

Yag dafa (literally, one time, translated as 'all of a sudden')


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## Outsider

Portuguese has *de repente*, literally "in a brusque/sudden manner"


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## DearPrudence

Usually in French we say:
*"soudain"*
"*tout à coup*" (which doesn't make much sense if the words are taken separately)


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish: suddenly*


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## Alijsh

Bienvenidos said:


> Persian:
> 
> Yag dafa (literally, one time, translated as 'all of a sudden')


We say *ye[k] dafe* (it's usually without k) and as you know, it's a colloquial term. In written Persian, we have *nâgahân*. In our colloquial, we have also *ye how* (yek how); and *ye martabe* (synonym to *ye dafe*) but it's not common.


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## Maja

In Serbian:

iznenada, naprasno, odjednom (odjedanput, odjedared).


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## jonquiliser

Swedish: e.g. "(helt) plötsligt" 

Finnish: e.g. "yhtäkkiä"


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## Frank06

Hi,


Bienvenidos said:


> I know that each language has an interesting way of expressing "suddenly." How is it said in your language?


In *Dutch*: 
_plots / plotseling_
According to the dictionary it is (1) derived from Northern German plotz and (2) an onomatopeia of something that falls on a hard floor.
*[Edit]*
Another possibility is 'eensklaps', which funnily enough also refers to something that hits a hard surface (klap). The summum is 'plotsklaps' which unites the two onomatopeias.


[*Second edit*: Question about Persian deleted. I missed the post by Alijsh, my apologies]

Groetjes,

Frank


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## elroy

Arabic: فجأةً

It shares its root with the word for "surprise," so it kind of means "as a surprise."


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## Vejrudsigt

*Danish*: pludselig 
*German*: plötzlich


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## linguist786

Bienvenidos said:


> Persian: Yag dafa (literally, one time, translated as 'all of a sudden')





Alijsh said:


> We say *ye[k] dafe* (it's usually without k) and as you know, it's a colloquial term. In written Persian, we have *nâgahân*. In our colloquial, we have also *ye how* (yek how); and *ye martabe* (synonym to *ye dafe*) but it's not common.


This is interesting. In Urdu, "ek dafaa" (similar to Persian) also translates to "one time" ("ek martabaa" means the same thing too). However, it is not used to express "suddenly". We use it to mean "Once.." (In the sense of "Once upon a time.."). Anyway:

*Urdu/Hindi:*

/achaanak/
(*اچانك*/अचानक)

*Gujarati:*

/ochintu/
(ઓચિંતું)


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## Dalian

Mandarin:
突然 (tū rán)


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## kios_01

In Tagalog/Filipino: *biglâ*

It's an adverb meaning "in a sudden/fast manner."

*Biglâ  siyáng nagálit sa ákin.*

*Biglâ* = Suddenly
*siyang* = he
*nagalit* = got angry; be mad (AE)
*sa* = to
*akin *= me

"He suddenly got mad at me."


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## samanthalee

Dalian said:


> Mandarin:
> 突然 (tū rán)


 
Which is rather difficult to translate literally. 突 means prominiently different from others (or unexpected), 然 means characteristic (actually "nature" is more accurate, but it may be misunderstood to be "Nature" as in Mother Nature).


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## Joannes

Frank06 said:


> In *Dutch*:
> _plots / plotseling_
> According to the dictionary it is (1) derived from Northern German plotz and (2) an onomatopeia of something that falls on a hard floor.
> *[Edit]*
> Another possibility is 'eensklaps', which funnily enough also refers to something that hits a hard surface (klap). The summum is 'plotsklaps' which unites the two onomatopeias.


 
Right. We also have *opeens* and (less standard) *ineens* both combinations of a preposition and *eens* 'once'.

In West-Flanders there's also *almedeké* (there's no standard spelling), which I think is a nice expression. It is derived from *al met e kere* (*keer* in Standard Dutch) meaning 'all in a turn/time'.


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## sonleia

Spanish: "de repente" or "de pronto"
Catalan: "de cop i volta" or "de sobte"


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## Jeedade

Italian: "improvvisamente" or "all'improvviso" which is something like unforeseen.
There is also "repentino" which has probably the same roots as the Spanish and Portoguese examples.


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## deine

Lithuanian:

Staiga
 or 
Netikėtai


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## suslik

In Estonian:

"äkki", "järsku" or "äkiliselt"


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## nagusi

suslik said:


> In Estonian:
> 
> "äkki", "järsku" or "äkiliselt"


 
Basque = bat-batean


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## Etcetera

In Russian: вдруг / vdrug or внез*а*пно / vnez*a*pno.


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## jonquiliser

Galician:

de súpeto.


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## Thomas1

Polish:
_nagle_ 
_nieoczekiwanie_ - unexpectedly


Tom


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## Whodunit

DearPrudence said:


> Usually in French we say:
> *"soudain"*
> "*tout à coup*" (which doesn't make much sense if the words are taken separately)


 
"Soudainement" should work as well. By the way, "tout à coup" could be translated as "from one moment to the next" (literally: on one blow).



Vejrudsigt said:


> *German*: plötzlich


 
A more interesting expression for "suddenly" in German is "auf einen Schlag," which means as much as the French "tout à coup."

As for the word "plötzlich:" It's the adjective of the ancient word "Plotz" (= blow) and means "on a blow" again.


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## ronanpoirier

Hungarian:
Igaz is

I think "repentinamente" would work for Portuguese too.


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## Outsider

It's related to _repente_, like _de repente_.


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## DrLindenbrock

Jeedade said:


> Italian: "improvvisamente"  or "all'improvviso"  which is something like unforeseen.
> There is also "repentino"  which has probably the same roots as the Spanish and Portoguese examples.


 
Good job Jeedade!  
Just remember that "repentino" is an adjective; the corresponding adverb would be "repentinamente".
As a native, let me say that "improvvisamente" and "all'improvviso" are by far the most used.


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## Outsider

jonquiliser said:


> Galician:
> 
> de súpeto.


That reminds me of another way to say it in Portuguese: _de súbito_ (or _subitamente_).


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## juronjaure

Norwegian: plutselig


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## gonza_arg

Outsider said:


> That reminds me of another way to say it in Portuguese: _de súbito_ (or _subitamente_).


And the Spanish: _de sopetón._ Another expression in Spanish could be: _repentinamente. _
By the way, Could it also be the English _out of the blue _for_ suddenly?_


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## jazyk

We also say _de supetão _in Portuguese, at least in Brazil.

Jazyk


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## jonquiliser

I believe "out of the blue" refers more to something unexpected (as in, out of the blue X phoned me), but at times the two things occur together; i.e. something sudden is something unexpected.


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## Alijsh

linguist786 said:


> In Urdu, "ek dafaa" (similar to Persian) also translates to "one time" ("ek martabaa" means the same thing too). However, it is not used to express "suddenly". We use it to mean "Once.." (In the sense of "Once upon a time..").


Yes, it also means "once, one time". We have also "ye[k] bâr". ye is colloquial form of yek (one) in Iranian Persian. So we have for "once": yek bâr, yek daf'e, yek martabe (یک بار، یک دفعه، یک مرتبه ). But only the last two terms can mean "suddenly, all at once".


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## Whodunit

I just came across a quite colloquial expression for "suddenly" in German:

*auf einmal*

Literally, it would be "at once." This can be re-translated into German as "auf einmal," too, but it has another meaning. 

"Auf einmal" in colloquial speech means "suddenly."


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## Jeedade

Whodunit said:


> *auf einmal*


In Dutch there's the analogue "opeens" which can be used for suddenly as well.


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## Mac_Linguist

In Macedonian:

*Ненадејно* (_trans._ "nenadejno" - with stress falling where underlined).


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## panjabigator

Panjabi

ਇਕ ਦਮ: /ik dam/
ਅਚਾਨਕ: /achaanak/


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## AkErBeLtZ

Basque:
- Oharkabean
- Ustekabean
- Ezustean
- Halabeharrez
- Bat-batean
- Tupustean
- Itsumustuan


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## bb3ca201

Anns a’ Ghàidhlig / in Gaelic
Gu h-òbann


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## MarX

Bienvenidos said:


> I know that each language has an interesting way of expressing "suddenly." How is it said in your language?


It's interesting in Indonesian indeed:

*tiba-tiba*

When the word *tiba *stands alone, it means _arrive_.


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## deine

^So to say _arrive suddenly_ would be:  tiba-tiba tiba?


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## MarX

^Theoretically, yes.

But it's more likely that you say:

*tiba-tiba datang*
or
*datang tiba-tiba*

*datang* = come


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## mimi2

Vietnamese:
Suddenly = Bất thình lình, thình lình, đột ngột.


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## Nizo

*Esperanto*:

*subite*


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## kusurija

Thomas1 said:


> Polish:
> _nagle
> nieoczekiwanie_ - unexpectedly


In Czech it is similar:
náhle (cf. Rus. наглий with different meaning)
neočekávaně - unexpectedly (did not wait such)
znenadání (cf. iznenada in Serbian) - unexpectedly.

Japanese:
突然 (totsuzen)


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## kaverison

Tamil
I think, lot of the words are fron sounds that indicate sense of surprise/shock

ThidIIrendru from thidIIr - sudden
Thidum endru,
sat endru
Sadaar endru
Pat endru or padaar endru
Endru is like "be" or Chinese shir.


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## Dymn

I think that it would be interesting to know the literal meaning of all your expressions for 'suddenly', or their etymology. For example, for Catalan and Spanish:

Catalan:
- _de cop i volta_. Lit.: 'from blow and turn', both _cop_ and _volta_ are synonyms for _vegada_, 'time' in its meaning of 'instance, occurrence'.
- _de sobte_. From Latin _subitus_ 'unexpected', past participle of _subire_ 'go under', from _sub-_ 'up to',_ ire_ 'go'
- _en sec_. Lit.: 'in dry'

Spanish:
- _de repente_. From Latin _repens_ 'unexpected', from _repere_ 'to creep, to crawl'
- _de pronto_. Lit.: 'from soon'.


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## 810senior

Japanese

突然(と) totsuzen(to)
突如(と) totsujo(to)
突として totsu to shite
they're literally close to unexpectedly in English. (to or toshite works as particle adhered to an adverb)

いきなり ikinari
iki: inf. ik-u(to go) + -nari: inf. nar-u(to become), literally means "as soon as it goes".

急に kyuuni
hurriedly, rapidly

やにわに　yaniwani
I don't know what word it derived or stemmed from. (ni works as particle adhered to an adverb)


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## apmoy70

Greek:

(1) Adv. *«αίφνης»* [ˈefnis] < Classical adv. *«αἴφνης» aípʰnēs* --> _suddenly_ with obscure etymology.
(2) Adv. *«έξαφνα»* [ˈek͡safna] < ByzGr adv. *«ἐξάφνης» ek͡sáphnēs*  < Classical adv. *«ἐξαίφνης» ĕk͡saípʰnēs* --> _on a sudden, suddenly_ < compound; prefix, adverb and preposition *«ἐκ/ἐξ» ĕk* (before consonant)/ *ĕk͡s* (before vowel)--> _out_ (PIE *h₁eǵʰ-s- _out_ cf Lat. ex) + Classical adv. *«ἄφνω» ápʰnō* --> _suddenly_ (with obscure etymology). The Byz. *«ἐξάφνης» ek͡sáphnēs* produced also the colloquial aphetic *«ξαφνικά»* [k͡safniˈka] and the dialectal aphetic *«ξάφνου»* [ˈk͡safnu].
(3) Adv. *«εξαπίνης»* [ek͡saˈpinis] < Classical adv. *«ἐξαπίνης» ĕk͡săpínēs*, Doric *«ἐξάπινας» ĕk͡sápinās* --> _suddenly_ (with inexplicable etymology, quite possibly an alt. of «ἐξαίφνης»).

(1) and (3) are learned, especially (3) is considered bookish; (2) is preferred in the vernacular (including the colloquialism).


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## 810senior

@apmoy70　Out of curiosity, is there any set phrase such as _all of a sudden_, _all at once_?


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## mataripis

Southern Tagalog has daglian and kagyat.


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## apmoy70

810senior said:


> @apmoy70　Out of curiosity, is there any set phrase such as _all of a sudden_, _all at once_?


I think you'll find this older thread interesting


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