たまに and たまたま sound similar, but have slightly different meanings (a little more than slightly, but they’re similar modifiers). So what’s the difference?
たまに = occasionally, once in a while
たまたま = by chance, by accident.たまに is a subjective viewpoint from the speakers point of view (meaning what the speaker says happens infrequently may happen often to the other person), and is often used with は for emphasis on the occasionally part.
ねえ、月見が好き？nee, tsukimi ga suki?
たまには月見に行ったけど、最近行ってない。tama ni wa tsukimi ni itta kedo, saikin ittenai.
Hey, do you like moon viewings?
I used to go to moon viewings occasionally, but recently I haven’t gone.
(p.s. a moon viewing is a Japanese tradition, popular enough to have its own name. As much as I’ve experienced, we drink hand-frothed green tea and….well, look at the moon.)たまたま is a sort of mimetic word, basically, a word based on a sort of sound or feeling you get (sort of like an onomatopoetic word but not based on an actual sound, i.e. when you happen to run into someone you don’t just go “TAMATAMA” involuntarily).
たまたま also implies that whatever happened wasn’t planned.私達はたまたま同じ電車に乗った。watashitachi wa tamatama onaji densha ni notta.
We happened to take the same train.And possibly, this blossomed into a beautiful friendship.
彼女と私もたまたま同じ種類の音楽が好きだった。kanojo to watashi mo tamatama onaji shurui no ongaku ga sukidatta.
Her and I also happened to like the same music.And then they became best friends! Who knows who you’ll meet on the morning commute!
Anyway, I digress from my tangent. That was totally beside the point.
In regards to where each goes in a sentence, tamani generally comes right before the topic marker wa, and tamatama usually comes after the topic marker (or in the case above, the particle mo, basically it comes after the topic, which was “her and I”).
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