In the sentence:
孫と会う度に彼がどんどん大きくなっている事に気付く。
can 度 be replaced by 時? It is not accepted as an option in reviews.
(Also, can the last に be replaced by を?)
I can’t say whether it’s grammatical or not, but 度 definitely sounds more natural. 度 is used for frequent/repeated actions. You can see that’s the case here, since the grandson is getting bigger (i.e. growing up), and didn’t just get big one time.
時, on the other hand, is either used for one-time actions, situations, or hypothetical actions/situations.
- 学校に行った時 represents the general time when you went to school, not each morning (assuming you’re an adult and reminiscing).
Examples from a Japanese dictionary:
- 家に着いた時、母はいなかった - one time action, notice the past tense
- 幼稚園の時は、やんちゃだった - past general situation
- 地震の時はどうしよう - hypothetical situation
(Also, can the last に be replaced by を?)
No, 気付く always* takes に.
(*as always, there’s intentional rule-breaking for effect, language evolving etc. but from what I’ve seen, を気付く is considered incorrect by most)
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