すぐ
すぐ
hepburn sugu
soon, immediately
Part of speech · adverb
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- すぐ行きます。I'll come right away.
- 駅はすぐそこです。The station is right there.
Collocations
すぐ (sugu, right away / immediately)すぐに (sugu ni, immediately — adverb)すぐそば (sugu soba, right next to)もうすぐ (mou sugu, soon)さっそく (sassoku, promptly, formal)
Mnemonic
すぐ sugu — dual-axis adverb of time and space: (1) "right away" temporally, (2) "right there" spatially. Distinguish from もうすぐ (mou sugu, soon) — もう (already/soon) + すぐ marks impending future, while すぐに means "immediately". Formal synonym さっそく (sassoku, promptly) opens business replies: "さっそくのご返信ありがとうございます". Japanese splits immediacy by register — casual すぐ / formal さっそく / scholarly 早急 (soukyuu, urgent). Time vocabulary signals register.
Quick check
Most appropriate "immediately" for opening a business reply?