～ことが多い
often does
～ことが多い attaches to a verb in the plain form and says that the action happens in many cases. The nominalizer こと turns the verb into “the act of doing ...”, and 多い says those cases are many.
It corresponds to English “often ...” or “tend to ...”, stated as an observation about how things usually go.
1. Describing a frequent habit or tendency
Use it to report what happens in a large share of cases, your own habits or general tendencies.
週末は家で過ごすことが多い。
“I often spend weekends at home.”
- 週末（しゅうまつ）= weekend
- は = topic marker
- 家（いえ）= home
- で = particle marking where the action happens
- 過ごす（すごす）= to spend (time)
- ことが多い（ことがおおい）= it is often the case (literally “the cases are many”)
2. With negative verbs
The verb before こと can be negative, giving “often does not ...”.
朝は時間がなくて、朝ご飯を食べないことが多い。
“In the mornings I have no time, so I often skip breakfast.”
- 朝（あさ）= morning
- は = topic marker
- 時間（じかん）= time
- が = subject marker
- なくて = not having (て-form, giving the reason)
- 朝ご飯（あさごはん）= breakfast
- を = object marker
- 食べない（たべない）= do not eat
- ことが多い（ことがおおい）= it is often the case
Compared with the adverb よく (“often”), ～ことが多い sounds more like a measured observation “looking at all the cases, many of them are like this” and is common in writing.
How to form it
Verb (plain form, affirmative or negative) + ことが多い
- 過ごす（すごす）= to spend (time) → 過ごすことが多い（すごすことがおおい）= often spend
- 遅れる（おくれる）= to be late → 遅れることが多い（おくれることがおおい）= is often late
- 食べない（たべない）= do not eat → 食べないことが多い（たべないことがおおい）= often do not eat
Key idea
～ことが多い counts occasions: out of all the times this situation comes up, many of them turn out this way. It describes a tendency, not a plan or a rule.
Built on the same stem
Updated .