21

What is the differences in nuances between とうとう and やっと?

is it true that やっと has a more "happy" feeling attached to it?

Pacerier
  • 11,872
  • 4
  • 54
  • 125

2 Answers2

18

やっと means that something realizes after spending/waiting a long time for it or making a lot of effort for it. Therefore it is understandable that やっと has a happy feeling attached to it. If I understand English correctly, “at last” has a similar meaning.

とうとう means that something happens as a final outcome, and what happens can be either a good thing or a bad thing.

For example, suppose that some company has been financially in a trouble for a while. Today you heard that the company went bankrupt.

あの会社、とうとう倒産したそうだよ。 (あのかいしゃ、とうとうとうさんしたそうだよ。) I heard the company finally went bankrupt.

is a usual sentence. If you say

あの会社、やっと倒産したそうだよ。 (あのかいしゃ、やっととうさんしたそうだよ。) I heard the company went bankrupt at last.

that means that you were waiting for the bankruptcy of the company.

Tsuyoshi Ito
  • 28,694
  • 2
  • 81
  • 139
  • You are accurate in mentioning that the effort is not a necessity. But it does not necessarily have to end up with happyness. It is just that there was expectation. –  Jul 29 '11 at 13:25
  • @sawa: I first thought so, too, but I find it difficult to imagine a situation where a speaker uses やっと and does not feel happy about what happened. I think that using やっと implies that the speaker considers the event as some kind of accomplishment, and that is why it is difficult to imagine using やっと without feeling happy. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 29 '11 at 13:28
  • やっと校長の話が終わった。でも、まだこれから教頭の挨拶があるんだ。 –  Jul 29 '11 at 13:36
  • 1
    @sawa: In that case, the speaker feels happy about the fact that 校長の話が終わった, although he/she is not entirely happy because of another factor. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 29 '11 at 13:44
  • You become comparably more happy than before, but happy. –  Jul 29 '11 at 13:47
  • “You become comparably more happy than before” Yeah. Is it incorrect to say “やっと has a happy feeling attached to it”? I did not say that a speaker who uses やっと is necessarily happy. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 29 '11 at 13:50
  • What about いよいよ?? – istrasci Jul 29 '11 at 15:02
  • wow nice find! i want to put that in but i think i can't edit the question now.. perhaps we open a new question? – Pacerier Jul 30 '11 at 14:30
  • @Tsuyoshi i think the mapping to "at last" is nice =D – Pacerier Jul 30 '11 at 14:32
0

Toto is crucially different from yatto in that the former often indicates a negative situation that came about spontaneously, but the latter indicates a positive situation that has been realized with the greatest efforts. {From intermediate dictionary on Japanese grammar pg 530}

so it seems you are right that yatto is for happier occasions.

macraf
  • 6,537
  • 6
  • 22
  • 49
Mark Hosang
  • 7,021
  • 2
  • 35
  • 56
  • I do not think that とうとう indicates a negative situation. On the other hand, やっと is used for an anticipated event, and therefore I think that it is correct to say that やっと indicates a positive situation. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 29 '11 at 15:33