“As Soon As” in Japanese

The easiest way to say “as soon as A, B” with the grammar already introduced is to simply use the word ‘immediately’ (すぐに) with the conditional

Here we introduce some more grammatically complicated ways of forming this expression.

～が早はやいか～

が早はやいか can be used with both the present and past tense but usage with the present tense (as in the sentence above) is more common. The phrase is literary suggesting that you don’t know which action took place first they happened so quickly.

Generally speaking, が早はやい is probably used more often in writing but can occasionally be heard in conversation, as well.

～途端とたんに

～した途端とたんに means the moment A happened, B also happened. It is more colloquial than が早はやいか and has the same meaning as ～した瞬間しゅんかんに (literally “at the moment”…). Grammatically, 途端とたんに requires the past tense.

～や否いなや～

～や否いなや～ is identical to が早はやいか but is only used in writing.

そばから

そばから has a slightly different nuance to the expressions above. This phrase is used to suggest a repeatable pattern: “whenever A happens, B happens”.