やはり / けっきょく / さすが / まさか

やはり / けっきょく / さすが / まさか Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Adverb

Essential Meaning: As expected / Still / After all

Construction: Adverb

Notes:

• やはり expresses that an event or situation conforms to some standard that the speaker possesses (based on comparison with the past, comparison with others, or comparison with common sense, depending on the context). Note that やはりconveys the speaker’s personal, subjective standard rather than some set standard.
  • E.g. 雪子ゆきこさんは今いまでもやはりきれいです。[Yukiko is still pretty.] In this example, Yukiko’s past beauty is being used as the standard of comparison for her present beauty. やはり implies that her current beauty is up to the standard (i.e. Yukiko is equally as beautiful as she was in the past).
  • E.g. お兄にいさんはテニスが上手じょうずですが、弟おとうとさんもやはり上手じょうずですよ。[The older brother is good at tennis, and the younger brother is unsurprisingly good too.] In this sentence, the younger brother’s tennis skills are being compared to the standard that the older brother has set. The implication of やはり is that the young brother meets this standard.
  • E.g. やはり日本にほんのビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?] In this example, the speaker has an expectation that Japanese beer is delicious. やはり implies that Japanese beer does in fact meet this idealized standard.

• Like other adverbs, やはり can be positioned flexibly within a sentence. The nuance is that sentence-initial やはり sounds most emphatic, and sentence-final やはり sounds like an afterthought.
  • E.g. やはりベイリーさんは来こなかったね。[As expected, Ms. Bailey didn’t come, right?]
  • E.g. ベイリーさんはやはり来こなかったね。[Ms. Bailey, as expected, didn’t come, right?]
  • E.g. ベイリーさんは来こなかったね、やはり。[Ms. Bailey didn’t come, right?…As expected.]

• やっぱり is a more emotive and emphatic version of やはり (due to the emotive nature of glottal stops in Japanese).
  • E.g. やっぱり日本にほんのビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?] This sentence is emphatic due to やっぱり. The speaker apparently really likes Japanese beer.

• さすが is another conversational adverb that is very similar to やはり. The difference is that さすが only means “As expected” and doesn’t have the additional nuances that やはり has (e.g. “Still” or “Also“). Thus さすが can only replace やはり when やはり expresses the concept of “As expected“.
  • E.g. やはり日本にほんのビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?]
  • E.g. さすがに日本にほんのビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?]

• けっきょく is another similar adverb that means “After all“. けっきょく can replace やはり only when やはり possessed the nuance of “After all“. けっきょく is marginally more formal than やはり because けっきょく is a Sino-Japanese word.
  • E.g. 色々いろいろ薬くすりを飲のんだがやはり治なおらなかった。[I took various medications, but after all I was not cured.]
  • E.g. 色々いろいろ薬くすりを飲のんだがけっきょく治なおらなかった。[I took various medications, but after all I was not cured.]
  • E.g. やはり行いかないことにした。[After all, I decided not to go.]
  • E.g. けっきょく行いかないことにした。[After all, I decided not to go.]

• まさか is another similar adverb that means “By no means“, “Surely not“, or “No way!” and expresses a situation that is far from the speaker’s expectations. Thus, it has the opposite meaning of やはり. まさか can be used by itself or with a negative predicate.
  • E.g. まさか大川おおがわさんが先生せんせいになるとは思おもわなかった。[By no means did I think that Ogawa-san would become a teacher.] In this example, the speaker did not expect that Ogawa-san would become a teacher, so the fact that Ogawa-san DID become a teacher is far from the speaker’s expectations.
  • E.g. A: トムが入院にゅういんしたそうだ。B: まさか！昨日きのうテニスをしていたよ。[A: I heard that Tom has been hospitalized. B: No way! He was playing tennis yesterday.] In this example, Speaker B assumes that Tom is healthy because Tom was active and healthy yesterday. So the fact that Tom has been hospitalized is totally unexpected to Speaker B.

Example Sentences:

ベイリーさんはやはり来こなかったね。[Ms. Bailey, as expected, didn’t come, right?]

雪子ゆきこさんは今いまでもやはりきれいです。[Yukiko is still pretty.]

お兄にいさんはテニスが上手じょうずですが、弟おとうとさんもやっぱり上手じょうずですよ。[The older brother is good at tennis, and the younger brother is unsurprisingly good too.]

やはり日本にほんのビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?]

僕ぼくはやはり結婚けっこんすることにしました。[After all, I decided to get married.]

WILD Examples:

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