Difference between たびに and と

They both seem to be used in the same way, although my intuition tells me that たびに is used in a more negative sense? I’m probably wrong. Does anyone have a short explanation?

Thank you! :mechanical_arm:

たびに is simply used to express a repetitive pattern or action and doesn’t intrinsically have either a positive or negative connotation that I can find. For example from Japandict:

そこに行くたびに彼女に会う。

With the translation:

Every time I go there, I meet her.

Doesn’t seem negative to me.

What usage of と are you thinking is similar to たびに? Do you have example sentences that you are getting confused on maybe?

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Well for example, the sentence you gave そこに行くたびに彼女に会う could be rewritten as そこに行くと彼女に会う without a loss of meaning correct?

So I guess I’m trying to figure out in which cases たびに would be more appropriate to use than と.

Thank you for your answer!

No. と would mean ‘if/when’ (at least that’s the usage of と I assume you are referring to?) and there’s no repetition being implied like たびに.

So your sentence is:

If/When I go there, I meet her.

vs

Every time I go there, I meet her.

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Maybe to further expand, と is saying if “x condition is met y action will result”. たびに is emphasizing the repetition of the action.

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Ah, I was under the impression that the use of と implied such repetition, but how come I rarely see たびに being used then? It seems as though it’s quite useful.

Is 毎〜 generally preferred for such situation?

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Not in any reference I have. It’s just a marker that if a preceding condition is met that implies or brings about the following action/state.

From DoBJG here is an example sentence to show:

タイヤは古いとあぶないですよ。

Translated as:

Tires are dangerous if they are old.

No repetition or anything, just a causal ‘x condition implies y state’ sentence.

I don’t know. Probably depends highly on what you are exposed to. But according to this search there are nearly 31,000 hits for たびに. Doesn’t seem to be that obscure.

I don’t think so necessarily. According to the same search 毎回, for example, has something like 26,000 hits.

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Hmm, understood, I guess I’ll start using たびに conversationally and see if I get corrected to something else :wink:

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Definitely a good way to figure when and where to use words. :+1:

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It’s my understanding that たび is used in more formal contexts so maybe that could explain it?

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