LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 69 JLPT N4
About That Time, About That Many (ごろ・くらい)
ごろ and くらい both mean roughly “about,” but they attach to different kinds of things. ごろ softens a specific point in time, くらい softens a duration, quantity, or amount.
I get to the office around 8 every day.
I get home around 7:30 every day.
In Real Life
ごろ only pairs with a point on the clock or calendar, a specific moment you’re rounding off. 8時ごろ means “around 8 o’clock,” never “about 8 [of something],” that job belongs entirely to くらい.
I did about two hours of homework every day.
I worked about five hours of part-time work on the weekend.
In Real Life
くらい measures a span or a count: how long something lasted, how much of something there is. 2時間くらい is “about two hours,” a stretch of time, not a point on the clock, which is exactly why it can’t swap with ごろ even though both translate as “about” in English.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| to arrive | |
| to begin (intransitive) | |
| to end | |
| practice | |
| subway | |
| half past | |
| every morning | |
| every night | |
| minute | |
| hour, time | |
| months (counter) | |
| year | |
| roughly, mostly | |
| approximately | |
| precisely, exactly | |
| around, give or take | |
| or more | |
| or less | |
| to take (time, money) | |
| waking up early |