ことに

The pattern ことに is used to emphasize the speaker's emotional reaction to something before stating the fact or event that caused it. It translates naturally as "to my ~", "~ly enough", or "what is ~ is that…" in English.

The emotion or feeling word comes beforeことに, and the fact or event that triggered that feeling comes after it.

Structure

• い-adjective
  • ことに: うれしい嬉しいことに (to my delight)
• な-adjective + な
  • ことに: ざんねん残念なことに (unfortunately)
• Verb (た-form)
  • ことに: おどろいたことに驚いたことに (to my surprise)

Common combinations

Because ことに emphasizes the speaker's feelings, it is most commonly paired with emotion-related adjectives and verbs:

• うれしい嬉しいことに – to my joy / happily
• かなしい悲しいことに – sadly / to my sadness
• おどろいたことに驚いたことに – to my surprise / surprisingly
• ざんねん残念なことに – unfortunately / regrettably
• こまったこと困ったことに – troublingly / to make matters worse
• さいわい幸いなことに – fortunately / luckily
• おもしろい面白いことに – interestingly
• ふしぎ不思議なことに – strangely / curiously
• ありがたいことに – thankfully / gratefully

Usage notes

• The phrase ことに typically appears at the beginning of the sentence, setting up the speaker's emotional frame before presenting the main content.
• It is used for the speaker's genuine emotional reaction, not for objective descriptions. You would not use it for emotions that are not the speaker's own (unless quoting).
• This pattern is more common in written language and formal speech than in casual everyday conversation.