I'm trying to figure out how to say unsurprisingly; I know that 果然 generally implies that you expect that something is going to happen, but in some contexts I'm not entirely sure if it is most appropriate. For example, if I asked a friend if I could go with him and his family to dinner, I would like to say
"John, unsurprisingly, said "of course""
Would this be
John 果然 说 “当然可以”。 or is there a better way to imply this?
果然 if we want to get all pedantic about this means, like you wrote, 'as expected'.
Oxford defines unsurprisingly as:
不足为奇地
unsurprisingly, she didn't show up
不出所料，她没有出现
Here we have two choices: (1)不足为奇, (2)不出所料...
and again defines unsurprising as:
不足为奇地
it is unsurprising that...
。。。不出预料
adding a third: (3) 不出预料
Like you mentioned at the beginning though 果然 would work just fine here...along with the three mentioned above (不足为奇, 不出所料, 不出预料) and a host of others:
果真
一如所料
果如所料
意料之中
take your pick...
It depends on your context.
In daily conversation, "John果然說"當然可以"" is OK and it seems that there's no better way to imply that.
In literature or formal speech, however, "果然" is not recommended. I prefer to say "不意外地, John說"當然可以""
