puntualmente

punctually

adverb poon-twahl-MEN-teh Rare

Also means

as expected

Usage Note

Puntualmente has two senses: literally 'punctually, on time' (è arrivato puntualmente) and, very commonly in Italian, 'as always, predictably, right on cue' with an ironic edge (e puntualmente ha dimenticato le chiavi = 'and sure enough he forgot his keys'). Learners often miss the ironic-predictability sense, which is perhaps the more frequent one in speech and journalism.

Examples

"E puntualmente ha iniziato a piovere."

Natural Translation

And sure enough it started to rain.

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