折には - Grammar Discussion

Grammar Points
#1

when, occasion, opportunity, time

Structure

  • Verb + 折 + (に/には/は)
  • い-Adj + 折 + (に/には/は)
  • な-Adj + な + 折 + (に/には/は)
  • Noun + の +折 + (に/には/は)

View on Bunpro

#2

For the question: メール、本社の上司に：「お暇____ぜひ我が支店にお越しください。」

I was thinking の +折 based on の 折 being a noun, but since it is an adjective as well it’s supposed to be な.

Is it possible both are correct? Or does the context make hima an adjective in this case?

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#3

Normally, only な is used.

暇 is always a na adjective since that’s a property of the word, it’s just not always used adjectivally. But in this case it is.

But in a sense, “context” also plays a role. For some reason the na adjective 暇 tends to be used with な with words like 折 or 時 and in many other cases, while the na adjective 多忙 (opposite of 暇) uses の like in ご多忙の折.

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#4

I keep mixing up 折に with 際に. They seem to be mostly synonymous, but Bunpro doesn’t tell me when it wants the other one, it just fails the question :sweat_smile: so when are they not interchangeable?

#5

According to DoAJG p507, 際 is acceptable when you cannot say that you are “taking advantage of a good occasion” and therefore 折 is not acceptable.
For example:

卒業の｛:white_check_mark:際・:x:折｝に彼女に振られた。

It would be nice for Bunpro to help distinguish those.

#6

Bunpro article says:

In most cases, 折()に will be used to indicate things that happen ‘from time to time’, rather than one off events.

But is this really true, and if it is, what is the alternative for one off events? Or is this just trying to convey that once-in-a-lifetime events happen less frequently than other occasions.

Bunpro’s example sentences do include one-off events such as graduation, meeting a famous author, first trip to Paris.

#7

That’s quite a confusing case.
Online search gives pretty much 0 results for both お暇な折に and お暇の折に. Either search doesn’t pick examples up, or people don’t actually use the word ひま when sending mails to superiors?
JP-JP dictionary lists ひま as a noun, but JMdict lists it as both noun and na-adjective.
hinative has both people saying 暇な時間 and 暇の時間 are both valid, but な is more popular lately, and people saying の is no good.