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Both words mean condition. In what context do we use them? Is one for expressing the condition of living things and the other one for the non-living things?

jarmanso7
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Zaks
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    Related? : [Difference between the words for “feeling”](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/15472/difference-between-the-words-for-feeling) You might be asking 体調{たいちょう} for living thing and 具合{ぐあい} for non-living thing? – kimi Tanaka Sep 24 '19 at 14:25
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    ^ OP's asking about 調子vs具合, not 体調vs具合, no? – Chocolate Sep 25 '19 at 08:11
  • @Chocolate Yes I am asking about what you said – Zaks Sep 25 '19 at 12:11

1 Answers1

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They are very similar, but I feel the threshold between よい調子 and 悪い調子 is higher than that between よい具合 and 悪い具合.

  • 彼は調子が良い: He is at his best
  • 彼は調子が悪い: He is not in his best condition, if not ill
  • 彼は具合が悪い: He is sick
  • 機械の調子が悪い: The machine is working, but something is wrong
  • 機械の具合が悪い: The machine may be broken
  • 調子はどう?: How's it going? / How are you?
  • 具合はどう?: How is your health? / Are you feeling any better?

And there are several set phrases where you can use only one of the two, for example:

  • 調子がいいことを言う: to sweet-talk; say nice things
  • 調子にのる: to push one's luck
  • その日は具合が悪い: I'm busy that day; It's not a good day for me
naruto
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  • If the threshold between よい調子 and 悪い調子 is higher than that between よい具合 and 悪い具合, does it mean that よい調子 is a _better_ condition than よい具合 and 悪い調子 is a _worse_ condition than 悪い具合? – jarmanso7 Oct 10 '19 at 07:13
  • If so, it seems contradictory to me that in 機械の**調子**が悪い the machine is still _working_, while in 機械の**具合**が悪い it may be _broken_. Because working is definitely a _better_ condition than _broken_. Could you explain it a little bit more, please? よろいくお願いします！ – jarmanso7 Oct 10 '19 at 07:16
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    @jarmanso7 No, "high threshold" means 悪い調子 may be used even if someone/something is just a little worse than "best". For example 調子が悪い is typically used to describe a poor-performing sport player who is not really sick. – naruto Oct 11 '19 at 16:52
  • Thank you very much, I understood it now. – jarmanso7 Oct 11 '19 at 18:15