Maria was surprised when...
 

Hola,

Quisiera decir algo como:

María le sorprendió cuando, sin aviso, su esposo salió de la sombra.[?] :thinking:

Gracias de antemano por las sugerencias!!

Maria was surprised when her husband suddenly appeared from out of the shadows.= María se sorprendió cuando su esposo apareció repentinamente desde las sombras.

"Sin aviso" sounds awkward. Chileno's suggestion or the simple use of "de repente" would be much better. :)

Muchas gracias Angelica y chileno:)
"A María" --> se me olvidó:duh:
--
Ambos "salió de las sombras" y "salió de la sombra" son traducciones. . .
Ejemplo de Unicef (linguee.com):

"Bringing invisible children out of the shadows and creating inclusive societies..."
-->"Sacar a los niños y las niñas de la sombra y crear sociedades integradoras..."

No pude "oir" cual sería mejor, tiré una moneda[?] para escoger.:whistling:

Singular is rather used for a hypothetical situation, just like your example. :)

Given one hundred years to consider the question I never would have predicted that the number of shadows was related to the degree to which the situation was considered real. Spanish is a fount of surprises.;)

Context is everything.

There are two buildings and several trees and all of them cast a shadow (hopefully, as long it isn't midnight, and even then!) ;)

Would that help?