ぶりに
- 1After a specified length of time, an action or event happens again for the first time in that period.Ex. 1
- 2In the fixed phrase 久しぶりに, something happens again after a long, unspecified time.Ex. 2
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Neutral and common in speech and writing. It often appears with returning home, meeting someone, rain or snow, or resuming an activity. It suggests the gap feels notable to the speaker in context, even if the span is short, as in 10分ぶりに電車が来た. Unlike て以来, which describes a continuing state since some point, ぶりに focuses on the moment the event happens again.
Learners should attach ぶりに to a length of time (三年, 十日), not to a date or point in time.
Do not confuse 三日ぶりに (again after three days) with 三日おきに (every three days, repeatedly).
Note that ぶりに implies the gap feels notable in context, so short spans also work when the wait matters (10分ぶりに電車が来た).
- ぶりN1「ぶり」 shares with 「ぶりに」 the meaning 'after an interval of ~'; additionally, it can attach to event nouns to mean 'the first time since ~', and to nouns or masu-stems to describe how someone does things (as in 「話しぶり」, 「食べっぷり」).
- 〜たきりN3「ぶりに」 attaches to expressions of length of time and indicates resumption after an interruption; 「〜たきり」 attaches to the ta-form of verbs and means that once something happened there was no follow-up, leaving things stalled—the second clause is usually negative. One speaks of resuming, the other of never resuming, so they cannot be swapped.
- おきにN4「おきに」 means something recurs repeatedly at fixed intervals—regular repetition—and takes numeric counters for time, distance, or quantity; 「ぶりに」 refers only to this one resumption after an interruption and expresses no repetition, so the two cannot be interchanged.
- て以来N2「て以来」 takes a starting point (verb te-form, noun, 「それ」, etc.) and describes states or changes over the whole span from then until now—it may also cover something happening for the first time since then (as in 「卒業して以来、初めて母校を訪れた」); 「ぶりに」 takes a duration and points to the single occasion of resuming after an interruption. 「て以来」 leans literary, and the two cannot be interchanged.
- たばかりN4「たばかり」 attaches to the verb ta-form and focuses on 'just having done...'—an action completed recently or a new state entered shortly before; 「ぶりに」 attaches to nouns of time length and marks something occurring again after being suspended for a while. The two cannot be interchanged.
ぶりに marks a single recurrence after a gap, while the manner-meaning ぶり (話しぶり) describes how something is done and おきに expresses repeated, regular intervals. 〜たきり means nothing has followed an action since, て以来 describes a continuing state since a point, and たばかり means something has only just happened.
