modality N2 common politewritten
〜傾向がある — there is a tendency to ~ / be inclined to ~
〜傾向がある ・ けいこうがある
Meaning
- there is a tendency to ~ / tends to ~ / be inclined to ~ — states a general, recurring inclination, not a one-off
Key sentence
最近の若者は本を読まない傾向がある。
Young people these days have a tendency not to read books.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb (plain dictionary / ない form) | Vる / Vない + 傾向がある | 値段が上がる傾向がある |
| Noun + の | Nの + 傾向がある | 上昇の傾向がある |
When: Objective and somewhat formal — analysis, reports, statistics. The variant 傾向にある ('to be on a … trend') is even more written.
Examples
彼は何事も後回しにする傾向がある。
He tends to put everything off.
気温は年々上昇する傾向にある。
Temperatures are on a rising trend year by year.
When you can't use it
- Describes a habitual or statistical leaning across many cases; it does not fit a single concrete event (×今日は遅刻する傾向がある for one instance).
Easily confused with
〜がち がち attaches to a stem and leans negative/personal ('prone to, apt to' — 忘れがち); 傾向がある is a neutral, analytical 'tends to', the natural choice for data and trends. 〜やすい やすい says an action is easy or likely to occur by nature (壊れやすい 'breaks easily'); 傾向がある describes an observed pattern across a group or over time.
See 〜傾向がある in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜傾向がある the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar.