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JLPT N2Expressions

～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.

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Pro lessonUNIT 62 · EXPRESSIONS

Structure · 形

[Verb ます-stem / Noun] + ぶり（っぷり）；[Time span] + ぶり

Examples · 例文

  • 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.

Usage notes · 注意

  • 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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