かたがた, がてら, and かたわら

Table of Contents

This page explains かたがた、がてら, and かたわら、expressions that mean “while” or “at the same time”.

かたがた

Do A and B
Noun + かたがた

かたがたis most similar to ついでに
It expresses that you did one action for two goals.
Sometimes the second goal is the verb itself. (See example 1)
The main goal comes first.

かたがた is fairly formal and typically used with business/Keigo related things.

Main goal (60%) + かたがた + Sub Action (40%)

The first part (sub action) tends to be words like 報告、お礼、or 見学
The second part tends to use movement/asking type words like 行く、訪ねる、伺う

Examples

お礼かたがた伺いました
To say thank you, I came by. (I also came by to say thank you)
彼は東京へ商用かたがた遊びに来た (Weblio)
He came to Tokyo for business, and also to play.
お仕事かたがた一度遊びにいらしてください (Gac20202)
Come to play once as well when you come for work.

がてら

Do A, and do B while at it (ながら)
Noun + がてら
ます stem + がてら

がてら has almost the same meaning as かたがた, except it is a bit less formal sounding, and places more emphasis on the first action. Additionally, it is more similar to ながら, since it suggests that the sub-action took place during the main action.

Main action (80%) + がてら + Sub action (20%)

Examples

散歩しがてら銀行による
While taking a walk, stop by the bank.
勉強しがてらニュースを聞く
While studying, listen to the news.
帰りがてらに店に行く
While going home, go to the store.

かたわら

Main Job A, and Side Job B
Noun + の + かとわら
Plain form verb + かたわら

(傍ら) かたわら* also means “while” but is typically limited to jobs and work.

Main activity + かたわら + Side activity

Almost exclusively used about working.

*傍ら literally means “beside”

Examples

教師を務める傍らにウエブサイトを運営しています
Manage a website while working as a teacher.
警察官の傍ら学校の警備員もやっている。
Work as a school security guard while working as a police officer.

かたがた and がてら

Although I explained the differences between かたがた and がてら as:

がてら: Main action (80%)+ がてら + Sub action (20%), ながら
かたがた: Main action (60%)+ がてら + Sub action (40%), ついでに

The difference isn’t that important.

Since かたがた tends to be used with more formal words like 報告、お礼, etc.,
Chiebukuro and Oshiete suggest that one difference between the two is that かたがた sounds more formal.

A general rule is if the sentence is business related (I.E. you are using Keigo) you want to use かたがた, and if its just a variant of ついでに, you should use がてら.

References

Oshiete – Best and most accurate かたがた + がてら difference answer (I think)
Chie – かたがた + がてら Difference
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