ごろ

Suffix (Basic ㊦ 126)

Approximately (with a specific point of time).

Equivalent: About; around

鈴木さんは朝七時ごろうちを出る・出ます。: Mr. Suzuki leaves home at about 7:00 o'clock in the morning.
A:いつごろ北京に行きますか。 B:来年の六月ごろ行きます。: A: About when are you going to Beijing? B: I'm going there around June of next year.
A:今朝は何時ごろまで寝ていましたか。 B:十時ごろまで寝ていました。: A: Until about what time were you asleep this morning? B: I was asleep until about 10 o'clock.
去年の今ごろは大雪でしたね。: About this time last year it snowed heavily, didn't it?

Formation

Noun (time)	ごろ(に)
	三時ごろ(に)	At about 3 o'clock

Notes

1. ごろ is used with a specific point of time. Thus, the following sentence is unacceptable.

*夜ごろテレビを見ていました。
*I was watching TV about at night.

2. Depending on the speaker's perspective, time expressions other than exact time expressions can be perceived as points in time. Thus, in Example (a), the month of June is a point in time from the speaker's viewpoint. In these cases, ごろ seems easier to use grammatically if there is some distance between the time of the event and the time of speech, as seen in the following examples.

??来年の夏ごろ山中さんに会います。
*I will see Mr. Yamanaka around next summer.

再来年の夏ごろ山中さんに会います。
I will see Mr. Yamanaka in the summer in a couple of years.

??去年の夏ごろ山中さんに会いました。
*I met Mr. Yamanaka around the summer of last year.

おととしの夏ごろ山中さんに会いました。
I met Mr. Yamanaka sometime during the summer of the year before last.

【Related Expression】

ごろ is different from くらい/ぐらい 'about' in that the latter is used with specific quantity expressions. Thus,

[1]

僕は三時ごろに寝ました。
I went to sleep at about 3 o'clock.

[2]

僕は三時間ぐらい寝ました。
I slept about three hours.