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I'm having trouble figuring out how to express vague amounts of time in Japanese, such as some number of months or some number of hours.

I want to use this in a context where the specific number is neither important nor known, but the factor of time passing/occurring is important. For example:

Some hours later, he finished the test.

Traveling to and staying in another country requires some number of months free.

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atlantiza
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2 Answers2

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Two constructions spring to mind here.

数{すう} can be used in place of a specific number, followed by a counter, to mean "some" / "a few" / "several" (it doesn't really make a distinction in this respect...).

数時間後、彼は試験を終わった。

This can be used in ways you might not expect:

数十秒 some tens of seconds
十数秒 ten-(and-some)-odd seconds (between 10 and 19)
二十数年 twenty-(and-some)-odd years

Alternatively, you can use 何 + counter + か.

他の国に滞在するなら、[何ヶ月]{なんかげつ}かは開いておかなければなりません。

The same kind of uses seen above for 数 also apply to 何.

永劫回帰
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Hyperworm
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  • (I'm hoping I haven't made mistakes elsewhere in those sentences...) – Hyperworm Feb 03 '12 at 22:07
  • `a few` (2 to 3) and `several` (more than that) make distinction. Usually, `数` only means `a few`, not `several`. –  Feb 03 '12 at 22:34
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    there's also も like 何回も – oldergod Feb 03 '12 at 23:44
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    Shouldn't it be '試験を終えた'or'終わらせた'...? 終わる is an intransitive verb and 終える is a transitive verb, no? –  Feb 04 '12 at 02:59
  • @Chocolate: I believe 終わる is used transitively as well (though perhaps 終える is more strictly correct?). [Sense 4 on Daijirin](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E7%B5%82%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8B&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=0). – Hyperworm Feb 04 '12 at 11:49
  • @sawa: Then what word or expression would you use for "several"? – dotnetN00b Mar 08 '12 at 08:56
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I think Hyperworm already did a good job of answering the question, so I'll just focus on saying "later"/"before".

Adding 前{まえ} or 後{ご} after any of these to mean "a few ... ago" or "after a few ...", e.g. 数{すう}分{ふん}前{まえ} "a few minutes ago" or 数{すう}分{ふん}後{ご} "after a few minutes":

  • 数{すう}秒{びょう}: "a few seconds"

  • 数{すう}分{ふん}: "a few minutes"

  • 数{すう}時{じ}間{かん}: "a few hours"

  • 数{すう}日{じつ}: "a few days"

  • 数{すう}週{しゅう}間{かん}: "a few weeks"

  • 数{すう}[ヶ]{か}月{げつ}: "a few months"

  • 数{すう}[年]{ねん}: "a few years"

I don't think you can say 数{すう}時{じ}（後/前）. I'm not sure whether 数{すう}月{げつ}（後/前） or 数{すう}週{しゅう}（後/前） are valid or not, but 数ヶ月（後/前） and 数週間（後/前） seem to be much more commonly used.

cypher
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