Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 8: 4/13

くらい ①About, Approximately

くらい and ぐらい may be used 100% interchangeably, but ぐらい is far more common in speech

Structure

Number/counter + くらい or ぐらい

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Particle

  • Word Type

    Adverbial Particle

  • Register

    Standard

About くらい ①

くらい or ぐらい (more common in spoken language) has several different uses in Japanese, but is often translated as 'about', or 'approximately'. It comes from the kanji 位(くらい), which literally means a 'rank', or 'grade' of something. This use of くらい comes after numbers, or counter words.

As can be seen in the last example, くらい may also be used after question words such as どの, when asking about the extent (grade) of something.

Due to the original meaning of くらい being 'rank', or 'extent', it may not be used when referring to broad periods of time. ころ will be used in these situations. However, くらい and ころ may be used interchangeably when referring to a specific time (due to a specific time being able to be thought of as an extent).

Caution

Please see the ころ grammar point if you would like to compare these two structures further.

Examples

--:--

    何時(なんじ)ぐらいに来(き)ますか。

    Approximately when will you come?

    あと３０(さんじゅっ)分(ぷん)ぐらいで行(い)きます。

    I will go/leave in approximately 30 minutes.

    毎週(まいしゅう)コーヒーはどのくらい飲(の)む？

    Approximately how much coffee do you drink per week?

    彼(かれ)は１０(じゅっ)歳(さい)くらいだろう。

    He's about 10 years old.

    一週間(いっしゅうかん)に、五(ご)時間(じかん)ぐらいスポーツをする。

    I play sports for about five hours in one week.

  • Get more example sentences!

    Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

  • Online

    • Offline

        • みんなの日本語 I

          Page 74 [CH 11]

        • [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

          Page 212

        • Genki I 2nd Edition

          Page 112

      • Track Resources!

        Bunpro tracks all of the resources you’ve visited, and offers relevant bookmarks of physical books to help with offline tracking.

      くらい ① – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (13 in total)

      • alexpwns

        alexpwns

        それぐらいでいいです。
        Was wondering why the で is needed here after ぐらい?

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        Without the で, the …ぐらい works like an adverbial phrase that modifies いい: “It’s about that good”.

      • BobFraser

        BobFraser

        I’m a little confused as to why for the following english sentence, ぐらい is preferred to ごろ:
        “Approximately when will you come?” => “何時ぐらいに来ますか”

        This example came up while doing a lesson quiz and I thought that in this case, ごろ would be more appropriate, especially because of the following grammar point from the lesson, but to my surprise the app was expecting ぐらい:

        [くらい・ぐらい is more often used to describe amounts, while ころ・ごろ is almost always exclusively used to highlight a point in time]

      Got questions about くらい ①? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

      Join the Discussion