そばから

そばから says that every time you do something, it is undone straight away: "no sooner do I… than…". It follows a dictionary-form or た-form verb, and it describes something that keeps happening, with the frustration that comes with it.

The two halves often have different people doing them – you clean, the children make a mess – but they need not: the third example is one person.

そばから is written Japanese, and sounds bookish in conversation. In speech, say きごう〜てもすぐ: かたづけて片付けてもすぐちらかされる散らかされる.

そばから or たとたん

たとたん reports one event: the moment A happened, B happened. そばから is for a cycle that repeats, so a single event takes たとたん.

• × 家を出たそばから、雨が降り出した → 家を出たとたん、雨が降り出した