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Expressing Duration

If you want to express the duration of an activity in Japanese, you need to use nouns such as 一時間 (one hour). Unlike other expressions of time, these nouns need no particle and usually appear immediately before a verb.

Vocabulary​

  • かかります - to take (an amount of time)
  • どのぐらいかかりますか - how long does it take?
  • 間 - duration suffix
  • ぐらい - about
  • 何時間 - how many hours?
  • 一時間/二時間/三時間 - one hour/two hours/three hours
  • 何日間？ - how many days?
  • 四日間/五日間/六日間 - four days, five days, six days
  • 何週間？ - how many weeks?
  • 七週間/八週間/九週間 - seven weeks, eight weeks, nine weeks
  • 何ヶ月？ - how many months?
  • 一ヶ月/二ヶ月/三ヶ月 - one month, two months, three months
  • 何年間？ - how many years?
  • 四年間/五年間/六年間 - four years, five years, six years

Inexact Durations​

If you want to add some ambiguity to your expression of duration, you can follow the noun with the word ぐらい.

  • 一時間 - an hour
  • 一時間ぐらい - about an hour

ぐらい is the most informal way of expressing inexact durations. 程 and 程度 are often used in the place of ぐらい if the speaker wishes to sound more formal.

Asking 'How Long?'​

If you want to ask how long something takes, you can use the question どのぐらいかかりますか. If you know more precisely the length of time something is going to take, you can use question words such as 何日間 in place of どのぐらい.

  • 福岡までどのぐらいかかりますか。
    How long does it take to get to Fukuoka?

  • 新幹線で福岡まで何時間かかりますか。 (How many hours does it take to get to Fukuoka by Shinkansen?

Example Sentences​

  • 昨日日本語を二時間ぐらい勉強した。
    I studied Japanese for two hours yesterday.

  • 私達は先週末富士山に登りました。十時間ぐらいかかりました。
    Last weekend we climbed Mt. Fuji. It took around 10 hours.

  • テニスを三時間する。
    I will play tennis for three hours.

  • 私はピアノを15年間やっていました。
    I had played piano for 15 years.

  • 今の仕事はどのぐらいやっているのですか？ー5年ほどです。
    How long have you been in your job? - About 5 years.