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. 雪子さんは今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. お兄さんはテニスが上手ですが、弟さんもやはり上手ですよ。[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なかったね。[Ms. Bailey, as expected, didn’t come, right?]
- E.g. ベイリーさんは来なかったね、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. 色々薬を飲んだがやはり治らなかった。[I took various medications, but after all I was not cured.]
- E.g. 色々薬を飲んだがけっきょく治らなかった。[I took various medications, but after all I was not cured.]
- E.g. やはり行かないことにした。[After all, I decided not to go.]
- E.g. けっきょく行かないことにした。[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. まさか大川さんが先生になるとは思わなかった。[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: トムが入院したそうだ。B: まさか!昨日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なかったね。[Ms. Bailey, as expected, didn’t come, right?]
雪子さんは今でもやはりきれいです。[Yukiko is still pretty.]
お兄さんはテニスが上手ですが、弟さんもやっぱり上手ですよ。[The older brother is good at tennis, and the younger brother is unsurprisingly good too.]
やはり日本のビールはおいしいですね。[As expected, Japanese beer is delicious, isn’t it?]
僕はやはり結婚することにしました。[After all, I decided to get married.]
WILD Examples:
***YouTube videos may be region-locked depending on your country of origin. If you experience issues, please try using a VPN set to a United States IP address.***