Maria was surprised when...

[BenCondor]

Hola,

Quisiera decir algo como:

Maria was surprised when her husband suddenly appeared from out of the shadows.

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

Gracias de antemano por las sugerencias!!

[chileno]

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

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

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

Originally Posted by BenCondor

A María le (if you're using IO, then there's something missing if you don't say "to whom") sorprendió cuando, sin aviso, su esposo salió de las sombras (if you used the plural in the original, why not in your translation?)

[BenCondor]

Muchas gracias Angelica y chileno
"A María" --> se me olvidó
--
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.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

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

[BenCondor]

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.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by BenCondor

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?