Learn about the difference between goro and gurai
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Intro |
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| Michael: What is the difference between ごろ (goro) and ぐらい (gurai)? |
| Risa: And how do you know which one to use? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee and Rin Sasaki are planning to go to an event together. When deciding upon the time, Ben asks, |
| "Around what time are [we] going?" |
| Ben Lee: 何時ごろ行きますか。 (Nan-ji goro ikimasu ka.) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: 何時ごろ行きますか。 (Nan-ji goro ikimasu ka.) |
| Rin Sasaki: 30分ぐらいかかるから、10時ごろ行きましょう。 (San-juppun gurai kakaru kara, jū-ji goro ikimashō.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: 何時ごろ行きますか。(Nan-ji goro ikimasu ka.) |
| Michael: "Around what time are [we] going?" |
| Rin Sasaki: 30分ぐらいかかるから、10時ごろ行きましょう。(San-juppun gurai kakaru kara, jū-ji goro ikimashō.) |
| Michael: "It will take about 30 minutes, so let's leave around 10." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we're going to look at two words that have roughly the same translation in English: |
| Risa: ぐらい (gurai) and ごろ (goro). |
| Michael: Both of these words translate to "about," "around," or "approximately," but they are used in different ways. Did you notice how Rin used these words in the dialogue? Let's listen to it again. |
| [2 seconds] |
| Risa: 30分ぐらいかかるから、10時ごろ行きましょう。 (San-juppun gurai kakaru kara, jū-ji goro ikimashō.) |
| [2 seconds] |
| Risa: 30分ぐらいかかるから、10時ごろ行きましょう。 (San-juppun gurai kakaru kara, jū-ji goro ikimashō.) |
| Micheal: Rin uses gurai to say "about 30 minutes," but then she uses goro to say "around 10 o'clock." She does that because |
| Risa: ぐらい (gurai) |
| Micheal: is used when we're talking about a duration. That is, how long something will take or last. Here, Rin uses the verb |
| Risa: かかる (kakaru), |
| Micheal: meaning "to take," as in how long will something take. It is also used for money, to ask or say how much something will cost. At the same time, Rin uses |
| Risa: ごろ (goro) |
| Micheal: to say around what point in time something will take place. Thus, in short, gurai is used when we are talking about an amount. For example, an amount or duration of time, or an amount of money, distance, weight, or all the other things one can count or measure. On the other hand, goro is used when we talk about a particular point in time, such as a month, week, or hour. Let's look at some examples: |
| Risa: ３時ごろおやつを食べます。 (San-ji goro oyatsu o tabemasu.) |
| Michael: "I eat a snack around 3 o'clock." Here, Risa used goro as this is a point in time. An oyatsu is a snack, a dessert, or simply a light meal, and, interestingly enough, it's usually consumed around 3 PM, so it also goes by a second name. Can you guess what that is? |
| Risa: お三時 (o-san-ji) |
| Micheal: This literally means "3 o'clock," but note that this version of the word is not commonly used like oyatsu. In fact, the word oyatsu also relates to 3 PM as in the old 12-hour system for counting time in Japan, yatsu denoted the time between the current 2 PM and 4 PM. Let's now continue with more examples of goro and gurai: |
| Risa: 東京は４月ごろから暖かくなります。 (Tōkyō wa shi-gatsu goro kara atatakaku narimasu.) |
| Micheal: "Tokyo becomes warm starting around April." Here, we also have a point in time, "April," so Risa used the word goro. |
| Risa: 月曜日ごろできあがります。(Getsu-yōbi goro dekiagarimasu.) |
| Micheal: "[It] will be ready around Monday." Again, we have a point in time, namely, "Monday," so Risa used goro. |
| Risa: １日ぐらいかかります。 (Ichi-nichi gurai kakarimasu.) |
| Micheal: "[It] will take one day." Here, we are talking about duration, so the correct word to use is gurai. |
| Risa: ２時間ぐらい勉強をしていました。 (Ni-jikan gurai benkyō o shite imashita.) |
| Michael: "[I] was studying for about 2 hours." Here, 2 hours denotes duration, not a point in time, so again the correct word to use is gurai. |
| Risa: ここから学校まで２キロぐらいです。 (Koko kara gakkō made ni-kiro gurai desu.) |
| Micheal: "It's 2 km from here to the school." In this sentence, we are talking about distance, not a point in time, so again the correct word to use is gurai. Let's now look at a tricky example: |
| Risa: ３日ごろ (mikka goro) |
| Micheal: "around the 3rd" |
| Risa: ３日ぐらい (mikka gurai) |
| Micheal: "around 3 days." Did you notice how using gurai instead of goro changed the meaning of the sentence? That's because |
| Risa: ３日 (mikka), |
| Micheal: with no context, can potentially mean both "the 3rd" of the given month (a point in time) and "3 days" (a duration), so adding either goro or gurai makes the meaning of the sentence clear. |
| Summary |
| Micheal: Let's now sum up what we've learned. In this lesson, we've looked at two words which have the same meaning but are used in two different settings: |
| Risa: ごろ (goro) and ぐらい (gurai). |
| Micheal: We've seen that goro is used when we talk about a specific moment in time, such as an hour, day, week, month, or even a year. |
| Risa: ２時ごろ、土曜日ごろ、来週ごろ、２月ごろ、1990年ごろ (ni-ji goro, do-yōbi goro, |
| raishū goro, ni-gatsu goro, sen kyū-hyaku kyū-jū-nen goro) |
| Micheal: On the other hand, gurai is used when we talk about an amount, such as a duration, distance, weight, or length. |
| Risa: ２時間ぐらい、３キロぐらい、５キロぐらい、30センチぐらい (ni-jikan gurai, san-kiro |
| gurai, go-kiro gurai, san-jussenchi gurai) |
| Michael: When taking a Japanese test, you should always make this distinction clear. However, in real life, you may sometimes hear gurai being used instead of goro (but not the other way around) in sentences such as |
| Risa: ５時ぐらい (go-ji gurai), |
| Micheal: where gurai is used despite it being perfectly clear that we're talking about a specific point in time. Technically, this is not correct, and it would be marked as a mistake on a test, but more and more people are starting to use gurai in this manner. |
| Practice Section |
| Micheal: Let's now practice what we have learned. Risa will say a sentence in Japanese. Try adding either goro or gurai to the sentence. We'll give you the correct answer after a few seconds. Are you ready? Here's the first sentence: |
| Risa: 毎日８時間寝ます。毎日８時間寝ます。 (Mainichi hachi-jikan nemasu.) |
| [5 seconds] |
| Risa: 毎日８時間ぐらい寝ます。毎日８時間ぐらい寝ます。 (Mainichi hachi-jikan gurai nemasu.) |
| Micheal: "I sleep for about 8 hours every day." Let's move on: |
| Risa: 今日、５時に起きました。今日、５時に起きました。 (Kyō, go-ji ni okimashita.) |
| [5 seconds] |
| Risa: 今日、５時ごろ起きました。今日、５時ごろ起きました。 (Kyō, go-ji goro okimashita.) |
| Micheal: "Today I woke up around 5." Have you noticed how the particle ni changes into goro? |
| Risa: 今日、５時ごろ起きました。 (Kyō, go-ji goro okimashita.) |
| Micheal: You can also choose to keep the particle ni, in which case it would follow goro: |
| Risa: 今日、５時ごろに起きました。 (Kyō, go-ji goro ni okimashita.) |
| Micheal: However, since ni is used to point to a specific moment in time, and goro means "around," not "exactly," the particle ni is usually omitted when we use goro. Let's try some more practice examples: |
| Risa: 来週できあがります。来週できあがります。 (Raishū dekiagarimasu.) |
| [5 seconds] |
| Risa: 来週ごろできあがります。来週ごろできあがります。 (Raishū goro dekiagarimasu.) |
| Micheal: "[It] will be ready around next week." |
| Risa: この魚は500グラムです。この魚は500グラムです。 (Kono sakana wa go-hyaku-guramu |
| desu.) |
| [5 seconds] |
| Risa: この魚は500グラムぐらいです。この魚は500グラムぐらいです。 (Kono sakana wa |
| go-hyaku-guramu gurai desu.) |
| Micheal: "This fish weighs around 500 grams." And lastly, here's a final example: |
| Risa: 彼女は160センチです。彼女は160センチです。 (Kanojo wa hyaku roku-jussenchi desu.) |
| [5 seconds] |
| Risa: 彼女は160センチぐらいです。彼女は160センチぐらいです。 (Kanojo wa hyaku roku-jussenchi gurai desu.) |
| Micheal: "She's about 160 cm tall." |
Outro |
| Michael: That's all for this lesson. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (Mata-ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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