I was doing my reviews and I had some question about some parts of some sentences, I ran into recently.
JLPTまであと一ヵ月半しかありません。
There is only a month and a half left until the JLPT.
あと一ヵ <---- I don’t understand this bit. I don’t understand exactly what part of the sentence it’s supposed be and I don’t get what is up with the smaller か.
The other question I had was when do you use the reading かた vs ほう for the 方 kanji. From what I was able to figure out in the first two sentences it’s ほう and in the third it is かた. Is this correct?
どちらの方がすきですか。
Which one do you prefer?
あちらの方に行ってください 。
Please go that direction.
かの女のわらい方がきらいだ。
I don’t like the way she laughs.
Is it that If the kanji means direction it’s ほう and if it means way it’s かた?
This is a way of counting for a few specific things, like months in this case. 一ヵ月 いっかげつ, 二ヵ月 にかげつ, 三ヵ月 さんかげつ etc, is how you would read it. The same counting method can also use a small ヶ, and it’s pronounced the same, as か, even though it looks like ケ. 一ヶ月 いっかげつ. You can also just write it with a normal か as well, 一か月.
There’s more about that character as well in other cases as well, if people are interested in expanding on that.
Regarding 方, you are correct that if it means a direction in space, it will be ほう and if it means “way of doing” in that grammatical form, it will be かた.
ほう can be used in kind of an abstract grammatical construction, like 行った方がいい (you should go) or 行かない方がいい (you shouldn’t go). You’ll definitely come across that in beginners’ textbooks.
かた is also a reading you will use when referring to people politely. Again, it will usually be clear from context that “people” is the meaning intended.