How confident are you about saying “finally” in Japanese?

It’s easy to think you’ve nailed it, but even advanced learners stumble over the subtle differences... 

Here’s a timeless piece of content my cofounder Nicolas once shared on LinkedIn that sparked a lot of interest  👏

ようやく・やっと

・When something finally did happen after a long time
・When there is a wish it would have happened sooner.
・In the past tense and only with affirmations and never with a negation even if it means a "positive outcome" (ie "not breaking" "not dying")

Differences:
・ようやく emphasizes the process (and the time/effort put in) and やっと emphasizes the result (and the sense of relief/joy attached to it)
・ようやく is slightly more written and やっと is more oral

とうとう・ついに

・When, after a long time, something did or didn't happen
・When there is not necessarily a wish it'd happened sooner (positive and negative outcome).
・In the past tense with both negation and affirmation

Differences:
・とうとう emphasizes the process and tends to be used more for negative outcomes and ついに focuses on the final outcome
・とうとう is slightly more written and ついに is more oral

いよいよ

This one differs in that it is used in the non-past tense and hence describe something that is going to happen in the very near future and that you are looking forward

結局・最終的に 【けっきょく・さいしゅうてきに】

 ・to talk about the conclusion/final stable stage of a situation/reflexion after "a lot happened" (not necessarily in a long time frame)
・in the past and non-past tense
・In affirmations, negations and even questions
・if there were two possible outcomes (yes/no) or more

Summary

・やっと買えた (Focus on the happiness of finally "having it")
・ようやく買えた (Focus on how long/hard it was to finally being able to buy)
・ついに買った (Focus on the outcome of buying it after a long time)
・とうとう買った (Focus on how long it took to reach the outcome of buying)
・いよいよ買える (Focus on the excitement of being able to get the item soon)
・結局どうするの? or 結局どうしたの？ (Focus on asking the conclusion among several possible outcomes after some hesitation)
・結局買わなかった (Focus on the conclusion, the listener may already be aware of such situation)

It's a lot to remember, I know... Instead of remembering all these hard rules, try to learn them in context. 

Practice the ways to say "finally" on the Cardemy app

Practice now

By clicking the example sentences will be added to your feed. You can then study them whenever you're ready using the [Add] button on the feed.

Hope this helps! Don't hesitate to let me know if you see any improvement we could add to this content.