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I ran for her and put my hand on her shoulder and called Sarah (my wife's name), but immediately, I found out that I had mistaken another woman for my wife! When the woman turned around I said: "Sorry! I took you for someone else!"

(Part 1)
The woman looked at me..........

a. with a surprised look
b. in a surprised way
c. in wonder

(Part 2)

and told me:

a. with a surprised tone
b. in a surprised way
c. in wonder

No worries! It happens!

PS. the combination of the two parts, may sound not natural, but I tried to merge two different scenarios to shorten my questions and make a more comprehensive thread.

1 Answer 1

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For the first part, the first two are not natural and the third probably doesn't describe what you mean: according to the Cambridge Dictionary, when used as a noun, wonder means "surprise and admiration". If you were a famous TV star, "in wonder" might therefore be appropriate.

The most natural way of saying this would be

The woman looked at me in surprise.

For the second part, if she says "no worries! It happens!" none of the suggested options really are appropriate. Maybe "unconcerned" would hit the spot.

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  • Well, how about if we remove "no worries" @JavaLatte? Would it work to say: "she told me in surprise" like the first part?
    – A-friend
    Nov 8, 2021 at 6:20
  • "It happens!" still sounds like somebody who is no longer surprise. To still sound surprised, she would have to say something like "Surprised, she asked how I could mistake her for somebody else."
    – JavaLatte
    Nov 8, 2021 at 9:09
  • I see. Then could it sound natural if I would have written something like: "The woman told me in surprise: you scared me!"?
    – A-friend
    Nov 8, 2021 at 16:18
  • "told me in surprise" describes her state of mind while she is talking, not when you touched her. You may have surprised her when you touched her unexpectedly, but she uses past tense for scare, so she's over being scared, and I guess she's also over being surprised.
    – JavaLatte
    Nov 9, 2021 at 0:09

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