そばからas fast as, every time
Each time something is done, it is undone or outrun at once: you learn a word and it's gone, you tidy up and the mess is back. Usually said with a sigh.
I forget new words as fast as I learn them.
On windy days, fallen leaves scatter across the garden again as soon as it has been swept.
How to form it
Verb in the dictionary form or the た-form + そばから
覚えるそばから, 覚えたそばから: the meaning is the same. そば is "right beside": the second thing is right on the heels of the first.
- Before it
- Something done over and over: 覚える, 片づける, 掃除する, 聞く, 言う, 作る.
- After it
- What happens each time: it is forgotten, messed up again, eaten, followed by the next one.
- Where you'll meet it
- Conversation as much as writing.
In use
In this job, as soon as I answer one email, the next inquiry arrives.
As soon as the graffiti is removed from this wall, someone writes on it again.
This bread is so popular that it sells as fast as we can bake it.
No complaint this time: the baking just can't keep up.
Two things to know
Usually every time, not once
The moment I had tidied the room, the kids made a mess of it.
Once: what happened that day.
As fast as I tidy the room, the kids make a mess of it.
Every time. Tidying can't win.
言ったそばから
You will hear this one a lot: you had barely said it when the opposite happened. Here it can be about a single time.
I had no sooner said "be careful" than my son knocked his cup over.
Look, you're spilling it even as I'm telling you.
言ってるそばから: while the words are still in the air.
Close neighbours
たびにN3
A plain "every time", welcome or not. Nothing in it says at once, or that anything is undone.
Whenever my mother travels, she sends her family a postcard.
が早いかN1
"No sooner … than" in written storytelling. The two halves can be about different people or things. A rarer twin of や否や.
No sooner had the alarm sounded than the passengers ran for the exit all at once.
や・や否やN1
"The moment" in written storytelling and news. The two halves can be about different people or things. や alone is shorter and stiffer.
The moment the train arrived at the station, the waiting passengers all boarded at once.
なりN1
Both halves are about one person, and what they do next is abrupt. Heard in speech as well as read.
The moment the child had his shoes off, he dashed upstairs.
Check yourself
1Which one fits?
祖母は
Choose an answer to see why.
2What does this say?
父は、
Choose an answer to see why.
More sentences
Policies are changed almost as soon as they are decided in meetings, so the staff on the ground are confused.
As soon as the staff arrange the shelves, customers start taking the products.
Each time the new employee learns one procedure, they immediately forget a procedure learned earlier.