Translation guide
How to express 'briefly' in Japanese, covering short duration, concise speech, and summarizing.
Describing an action that lasts only a short time.
Literally 'for a little while'. A natural, neutral way to say 'briefly' when referring to a short duration.
Please wait outside briefly.
Very common casual word meaning 'a little' or 'briefly'. Often used in spoken Japanese.
Wait briefly.
Means 'for a while' or 'for some time'. Can imply a longer duration than ちょっと, but still relatively brief.
Please wait briefly.
Means 'temporarily' or 'for a short period'. More formal and often used in written contexts.
The system will stop briefly.
Expressing something in few words, without detail.
Adverb meaning 'concisely' or 'briefly'. Used when speaking or writing succinctly.
Please explain briefly.
Means 'briefly' or 'in short'. Often used when asking someone to be quick.
Please speak briefly.
Means 'simply' or 'briefly'. Implies giving a simple, not detailed, explanation.
Briefly put, that's impossible.
Literally 'if said in one word', meaning 'in short' or 'briefly'. Used to summarize.
Briefly, it was a failure.
Introducing a short summary or conclusion.
ちょっと is casual and very common in speech. 少しの間 is slightly more formal and explicitly means 'for a short time'. Use ちょっと with friends, 少しの間 in polite requests.
Wait a sec.
Could you wait briefly?
簡潔に means 'concisely' in terms of expression, not duration. To say 'I stayed briefly', use 少しの間 or ちょっと, not 簡潔に.
つまり、彼は来ないということです。
Briefly, it means he's not coming.