Are You Ready for using 意外 and 案外?
When the results were different than you thought, then you would use 意外 and 案外, however, these are quite similar words each other. I’d say some people are struggling to improve how to use it. So in this time, let me introduce for everybody using 意外 and 案外 clearly.
意外 (igai)
___than I thought / Surprise / Surprisingly
意外 originally means that the big difference results than you thought and you are surprised about it. Natives basically use ほ〜 when being surprised about something or someone said than they thought. 意外 is used as a much surprised word for Natives than 案外.

Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced



案外 (angai)
___than I thought
案外 originally means that a little bit different results than you thought and you are not surprised about it or it is just only tiny surprising. Natives basically use へ〜 when a little bit different results someone said than they thought.


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Thank you! Using ほ~ and へ~ to show the difference made it very easy to understand, super intuitive. Haven’t seen this approach elsewhere.
I’ll keep your site bookmarked in case I’m confused about anything else in the future.
Hi Progeusz
Thank you for your great comment and for reading and bookmarking our site. We’re really happy to hear that. I hope that you would figure out the Japanese deeply with this site. We keep writing valuable posts for you guys studying Japanese!