Overview
These four sort into two intentional adverbs and two unintentional ones. On the deliberate side: わざと means “on purpose,” often with a mischievous or negative edge, while わざわざ means “going out of one’s way,” taking special trouble — usually kind, sometimes “needlessly.” On the unintentional side: つい is an unintended slip — you did it without meaning to — while ふと is a spontaneous, unbidden thought or act that just arises. The shorthand for students: わざと = deliberate (often bad), わざわざ = deliberate effort (often good), つい = a slip against your intention, ふと = something that pops up on its own. The two “waza-” words and the two unintentional words are each other’s classic confusions, so the boundaries below matter. The entries lead with a simple example, then a funny one.
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