Page 374 - Basic Japanese

Tōkyō wa Manhattan to onaji yō ni hito ga ōi desu ka.

Is Tokyo as crowded as Manhattan?

東京はマンハッタンぐらい人が多いですか。

Tōkyō wa Manhattan no yō ni hito ga ōi desu ka.
Is Tokyo as crowded as Manhattan?

In each case you expect the answer Hai, sō desu.

The particles hodo as well as gurai and bakari are used
after numbers and quantity words to mean ‘about so much.’

The following three sentences mean ‘It takes about one
hour.’

一時間ほどかかります。
Ichi-jikan hodo kakarimasu.

一時間ぐらいかかります。

Ichi-jikan gurai kakarimasu.

一時間ばかりかかります。

Ichi-jikan bakari kakarimasu.

After a noun, verb, or adjective, the particle hodo means
‘extent’:

山ほど本を買いました。

Yama hodo hon o kaimashita.

He bought a mountain of books. (books to the

extent of a mountain)

あなたほど日本語が上手な人は見たことがありませ

ん。