がち
- 1Tends to end up in an undesirable state or condition.Ex. 1
- 2Does something frequently or habitually, usually with a negative nuance.Ex. 2
This browser can't play pronunciations (needs Safari 18.4 or later, or Chrome / Edge / Firefox).
Used in both speech and writing to point out habits or tendencies, typically ones the speaker sees as undesirable, such as poor health, absence, or forgetfulness. It describes repeated occurrence over time rather than a single event. Compared with やすい, it usually carries a critical or undesirable nuance, though some uses are simply descriptive.
Do not use がち for clearly desirable tendencies; it mostly marks undesirable ones, though neutral descriptive uses such as 晴れがち or 遠慮がち exist.
Note that noun + がち works only with a limited set of nouns, such as 病気 or 留守.
Learners should remember that がち describes a repeated tendency, not a one-time occurrence.
- ぎみN3ぎみ describes a state that has already slightly shown itself at the moment (a bit of...), while がち describes a tendency to occur repeatedly; for example, 遅れぎみ means 'slightly behind right now' and 遅れがち means 'often late,' so the two cannot be freely interchanged.
- ともすればN1ともすれば is a written-style adverb placed before the predicate to flag a negative tendency and never attaches after a word, whereas がち attaches to a ます-stem (the ます form minus ます) or a noun and itself expresses the tendency. The two often combine as ともすれば～がちだ and cannot replace each other.
- やすいN4やすい is close to がち in expressing that something is prone to a certain tendency, but it stresses the thing's inherent nature and can be used for praise or criticism, while がち stresses frequent occurrence and usually carries a negative judgment. やすい also means 'easy to do' and does not attach to nouns.
- っぽいN3When っぽい attaches to a ます-stem to mean 'prone to...', it is close to がち, but 忘れっぽい focuses on a person's habits or character, while がち focuses on something happening repeatedly and often. っぽい conjugates like an い-adjective and leans colloquial.
〜がちだ is the same pattern in its sentence-final form, and ともすれば is an adverb meaning 'be apt to' that often co-occurs with がち. ぎみ signals a slight sign that is actually present now, やすい expresses ease or likelihood without a necessarily negative nuance, and っぽい is a casual '-ish' or 'tends to', often describing character.
