傾向が/にある

Japanese
#1

Thanks for your continued support!

I was just reading this warning point

傾向がある tends to express behaviors or characteristics (static things that aren’t actively changing), while 傾向にある focuses more on being in a state of something that is ongoing or proceeding in a certain direction, such as a declining trend.

I wanted to clarify, is this always the difference between the two expressions, or is it like “usually this is the difference but they are kind of used interchangeably”. I feel like maybe it’s the second but I wanted to make sure.

The thing is that there are two examples in this warning point:

日本は少子化の傾向にある。 (Clearly expresses a change so I’m ok with this one)

この研究によると、勤務時間が短いほうが仕事の効率がよくなる傾向にあるようだ。

I’m not sure this one expresses a change the same way, although maybe the point is that the shorter the commute the more efficient the work becomes?

Additionally I saw this sentence in a book:

このような絵を描く人は、庇護欲があり、母性愛が強い傾向にあります

This one also uses に but seems to be quite a lot closer to “general trend” than change.

Given that I’m leaning towards my understanding that both が and に can be used the same way, and that に just tends (heh) to show a change in direction, but f I’m wrong please let me know

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#2

Hi again!

日本は少子化の傾向にある。 You are correct that in this example it is very clear, as the に indicates that this ‘trend’ is something that is ongoing all the time, not 2 years up, 5 years down, 1 up, 3 down, but overall down.

Let’s break down the other one.
この研究によると、‘According to this research’. Great! We can now basically forget about this in terms of the rest of the sentence, as it has nothing to do with the trend that is being presented.
勤務時間が短いほうが仕事の効率がよくなる ‘As much as working hours are low, results at work improve’
傾向にあるようだ。 ‘It appears we are in the trend of’

We are in an ongoing trend of this happening. Maybe 10 years ago we weren’t, maybe in another 5 years from now we won’t be again, but right now, it’s progressing steadily.

A good example of a similar English sentence would be ‘We are in a trend of Bitcoin increasing in value’. 15 years ago this was not true, and it often crashes, so we cannot predict the future, but right now, the trend exists.

Hope this helps!

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#3

Interesting! Ok, that makes sense. Thanks :blush:

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