～ぶり／っぷり — Manner Of; After an Interval
The suffix ぶり (colloquially っぷり) has two main uses. After a verb ます-stem or certain nouns it means 'the manner/way of doing something', often admiringly. After a time expression it means 'after an interval of', indicating something happens for the first time in that span. Context and the attached word tell the two uses apart.
Structure
[Verb ます-stem / Noun] + ぶり（っぷり）；[Time span] + ぶり
Examples
彼の働きぶりには感心した。
Kare no hatarakiburi ni wa kanshin shita.
I was impressed by the way he works.
働き (ます-stem of 働く) + ぶり expresses his manner of working.
その飲みっぷりのよさに、みんな驚いた。
Sono nomippuri no yosa ni, minna odoroita.
Everyone was amazed at how well he drank (his drinking style).
飲み + っぷり (emphatic form) describes his lively manner of drinking.
十年ぶりに故郷へ帰った。
Jūnen buri ni kokyō e kaetta.
I returned to my hometown for the first time in ten years.
十年 (a time span) + ぶり means the return happens after a ten-year interval.
• っぷり is a more emphatic, colloquial variant of ぶり for the 'manner' sense: 飲みっぷり, 食べっぷり. • The time sense often takes ぶりに: 三日ぶりに, 久しぶり. • 久しぶり ('long time no see') is the most common frozen form of the interval usage.
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ～ぶり／っぷり is tested against.
vs ～かた（方）
方 neutrally states the method of doing (書き方 = how to write); ぶり/っぷり describes the observed manner or style, often with an admiring or evaluative nuance.
vs ～ぶりに vs ～以来
以来 means 'since (a point)' and looks forward from an event; ～ぶりに measures the length of the gap and marks the first recurrence after that span.
More expressions
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