TAKOBOTO

Very; Quite; The 〜 thing is that....
To my great surprise...

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うれしいことにしがつから、きゅうりょうが１わりほどあがる。

It is a totally great thing, from April my salary goes up by 10%

ざんねんなことに、ポケットのあなからぜんぶのおつりをおとしてしまいました。

Unfortunately , I've lost all my change through a hole in my pocket.

ざんねんなことに、ストでしんかんせんがとまり、りょこうはちゅうしになってしまった。

Quite unfortunately, the bullet trains have been stopped because of a strike, and our trip got cancelled.

おどろいたことには、かのじょはかこくごがはなせるそうだ。

Quite surprisingly, I heard that she can speak seven foreign languages.

おどろいたことになくしたさいふがぶじにけいさつにとどけられていた。

To my great surprise, my lost wallet made it to the police intact.

ざんねんなことに、たのしみにしていたがあめでちゅうしになった。

The unfortunate thing is that the camp I had looked forward to was canceled due to rain.

ボスはさるをごうもんすることでかいかんをえる

My boss gets his kicks out of torturing monkeys .

いＡ + ことに
なＡ + な + ことに
Ｖた(past plain form) + ことに

rubyhatchet

This grammar should be used at the head of the sentence. It should be used to emphasize feelings, emotions, or sentiments.

rubyhatchet

I think the English translation should be better with 「The 〜 thing is that, .....」for 「〜ことに」. So for
ex#310 嬉しいことに、四月から給料が一割ほど上がる
「The happy/hearthening thing is that, from April onwards my salary will go up by around 10%.」I prefer to use "hearthening" in this case.
Notice the comma is at the ことに

ex#5256「The unfortunate thing is that, I dropped and lost all my change through a hole in my pocket.」

誠

Example #5935 does not belong in this entry. This must be "koto ni (ha)." Also, you can only use the plain past tense of a verb before it, not plain dictionary form.

rubyhatchet