日本語道場

Nihongo Dojo — N3 → N2

Grammar

N3

~がち

~gachi

tends to, apt to

When to use it

Use ~がち to say something tends to happen or that someone is prone to doing something — almost always with an undesirable or unintended tendency (oversights, delays, misunderstandings). It is common in analytical writing, reports and meeting commentary where you generalize about a recurring problem. Compare ~やすい (easy to / physically prone to) which is neutral, and ~ぎみ (a slight touch of a condition right now).

Formation

  • Verb: ますstem + がち → 忘れる → 忘れがち、見落とす → 見落としがち
  • Noun: only a small fixed set, mostly body/attitude/weather words → 病気がち、遠慮がち、曇りがち、うつむきがち
  • i-adjective / na-adjective: not used (say ~になりがち instead: 曖昧になりがち、雑になりがち)
  • Behaves as a な-adjective/noun: がちだ/がちです/がちな+noun/がちになる/がちに (adverbial)

Examples

  • When discussion drags on, the conclusion tends to end up vague.

  • Communicating only by email tends to breed misunderstandings.

  • Chasing the numbers, you tend to overlook voices on the ground.

  • He rather hesitantly proposed extending the deadline.

  • Junior staff tend to put off reporting bad news.