がちApt to do, Tend to do, Prone to do

Structure

Verb［stem］+ がち
Noun + がち
Noun ⁽¹⁾ + がち + な⁽²⁾ + Noun

⁽¹⁾ Verb［stem］
⁽²⁾ の

Details

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勝ち

About がち

がち is a suffix in Japanese that will be used after nouns, or the conjunctive form of verbs. It conveys that someone is 'apt to (A)', 'tends to (A)', or 'is prone to (A)'. Although not always negative, がち is most frequently used to express negative tendencies.

Fun Fact

がち as a grammar structure comes from the word 勝(が)ち, meaning 'a win'. 勝(が)ち in itself is used to express something that appears 'repeatedly', or 'again and again'. Due to this, がち may be thought of as similar to 'to win out' in English, meaning that 'although there are many possibilities, (A) winning out is the most likely'. This 'winning out' may be due to preference, or sheer good/bad luck.

Examples

--:--

それは初心者(しょしんしゃ)にありがちのミスですね。

That is a mistake beginners tend to make.

彼(かれ)はいつも遠慮(えんりょ)がちだ。

He always tends to hold back.

私(わたし)の息子(むすこ)は病気(びょうき)がちだ。

My boy is apt to get sick.

あの人(ひと)はすぐ、痩(や)せることを諦(あきら)めがちだ。

That person is prone to quickly give up on losing weight.

私(わたし)は昔(むかし)から遅刻(ちこく)しがちだ。

I have always been prone to being late.

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Online
- Expressing tendencies in Japanese
  Tae Kim
- How to use がち and ぎみ
  Maggie Sensei

Offline
- [AIAIJ] An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
  Page 230
- Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide
  Page 328
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がち – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (3 in total)

MZa
I’ve found this can be written 勝ち (very useful to retain this imho). Is it often written in kanji?

Due to the kanji meaning ‘victory, prevail’ and the point being used for negative tendencies, i guess this implies that this point literally means something like ‘the negative tendencies win, prevail’, but how do we have to understand it syntactically (is it the stem of 勝つ used as a noun ?)?
Pep95

MZa:

勝ち

Oh nice! This will help a lot
Daru

MZa:

'the negative tendencies win, prevail’, but how do we have to understand it syntactically (is it the stem of 勝つ used as a noun

That is exactly right! I didn’t know this myself, thank you for pointing it out!