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文法ぶんぽうGrammar Point

〜がち tends to / prone to: Meaning & Examples

gachi · JLPT N3

JLPT N310 textsStudy card

〜がち means “tends to / prone to”. It is a JLPT N3 pattern: below are its construction, the nuances that trip learners up, and the sentences where real Japanese writers use it.

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一枚いちまいStudy card

A free one-page study card for 〜がち (tends to / prone to), JLPT N3: what it means, how it attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances that trip learners up. Read it right here, or take the PDF or PNG with you. We never ask for an email for this card.

The 〜がち study card: one A4 page holding the pattern, its JLPT N3 meaning, the construction rules, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuance notes.
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How 〜がち works

曇りがちの天気 is “mostly cloudy weather”, 病気がち is “sickly”. Attach it to a verb’s ます-stem or to a noun, and the result behaves like a な-adjective: 遅れがちな電車, 忘れがちです. It reports a standing tendency rather than one occasion, and it quietly adds “unfortunately” to whatever it touches.

構文こうぶんConstruction

  • Verb (ます-stem) + がち

    最近、朝食を抜きがちです。 — I’ve been skipping breakfast a lot lately.

  • Noun + がち

    子供のころは病気がちでした。 — I was a sickly child.

  • Behaves like a な-adjective: 〜がちな + noun

    遅れがちな電車に慣れました。 — I’ve got used to trains that tend to run late.

  • Set phrases: ありがち ・ 忘れがち ・ 遠慮がち

    それはよくありがちな間違いです。 — That’s a very common mistake.

例文れいぶんIn a sentence

When I’m busy I tend to skip breakfast.
I was a sickly child.
That’s a very common mistake.

注意点ちゅういてんNuances

  • ×元気がち is not Japanese, and ×成功しがち sounds wrong for the same reason. If the tendency is a good one, use 〜やすい or よく〜する.
  • It describes a habit, not an event. 彼は遅れがちだ (“he’s often late”) is fine; 今日は遅れがちだ about one late train is not.
  • ありがち has drifted into an everyday adjective meaning “predictable, run-of-the-mill” — ありがちな展開, ありがちな失敗.
  • It attaches to the ます-stem: 忘れる → 忘れがち, 休む → 休みがち. The dictionary form never appears in front of it.
How 〜がち differs from similar patterns
  • 〜やすい — 〜やすい says something is easy to do or happens readily, with no judgement attached: 割われやすい (“fragile”). がち adds “and that’s a shame”.
  • 〜っぽい — 〜っぽい says what something resembles (子供こどもっぽい, “childish”); がち says what someone repeatedly does.
  • 〜きらいがある — 〜きらいがある is the formal, written relative of this pattern, used for tendencies in people and institutions rather than in weather or health.

練習れんしゅうYour Turn

Tip

Describe three habits you slip into when you are busy, each with 〜がち. Then use ありがちな to name a mistake learners of Japanese make all the time.

〜がち (tends to / prone to) in real sentences

Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.

— from On a Certain Trend (N1)

— from Lecture Campaign Record (N1)

— from The Cipher Record Incident (N1)

— from Battle of Tabaruzaka (N1)

Appears in 10 of 367 texts in our library.

蔵書ぞうしょThe texts

10 texts in the library use 〜がち

Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.

ネオン横丁殺人事件 cover Read ネオン横丁殺人事件 The Murder on Neon Alley 海野 十三 92 min read · Short Story 怪物屋敷 cover Read 怪物屋敷 The Monster Mansion 柳川 春葉 24 min read · Short Story 南京虫殺人事件 cover Read 南京虫殺人事件 The Bedbug Murder Case 坂口 安吾 88 min read · Short Story 怪談女の輪 cover Read 怪談女の輪 The Women's Ring 泉 鏡花 31 min read · Short Story 田原坂合戦 cover Read 田原坂合戦 Battle of Tabaruzaka 菊池 寛 80 min read · Short Story 或る風潮について cover Read 或る風潮について On a Certain Trend 岸田 国士 27 min read · Article 暗号音盤事件 cover Read 暗号音盤事件 The Cipher Record Incident 海野 十三 78 min read · Short Story 灯台鬼 cover Read 灯台鬼 The Lighthouse Ghost 大阪 圭吉 97 min read · Short Story 昆虫図 cover Read 昆虫図 Insect Diagram 久生 十蘭 12 min read · Short Story 講演軍記 cover Read 講演軍記 Lecture Campaign Record 芥川 竜之介 4 min read · Article

解説かいせつBackground

Where this 〜がち explanation comes from

〜がち sits at JLPT N3 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜がち and pull its example sentences out of them.

The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (On a Certain Trend and Lecture Campaign Record among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.

質問しつもんQuestions

〜がち: questions & answers

What does 〜がち mean?

It marks a tendency: something that happens often and is usually unwelcome. 曇りがち is “tending to be cloudy”, 遅れがち is “often late”, 忘れがち is “easy to forget”.

Can 〜がち be used for good things?

Rarely, and it sounds odd when you try. The pattern carries a shade of regret, so for positive tendencies Japanese uses 〜やすい (覚えやすい) or simply よく〜する (よく笑う).

What form does the verb take before がち?

The ます-stem: 忘れる → 忘れがち, 休む → 休みがち, 遅れる → 遅れがち. Nouns attach directly (病気がち, 曇りがち), and the whole thing then behaves like a な-adjective.

Is there a printable 〜がち cheat sheet?

Yes. A free one-page 〜がち (tends to / prone to) study card sits at the top of this page, as both a PDF and a PNG. It carries the JLPT N3 meaning, how the pattern attaches, 3 example sentences with furigana, and the nuances learners get wrong. You do not need an account or an email address to download it.

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