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Both ごとに and おきに appear to mean "repeatedly at intervals".

What is the difference between these two expressions?

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+1 for jkerian’s edit. – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 11 at 18:04

1 Answer

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１日おきに = ２日ごとに (every other day, every second day)
●○●○●○●...

２日おきに = ３日ごとに (every three days, every third day)
●○○●○○●○○●...

ごとに(毎に) http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%94%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AB
おきに(置きに) http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/2%E6%97%A5%E7%BD%AE%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AB
おき(置き) came from the verb 置く(leave). I think it's like "an interval (between the actions)" here. cf. 「[間隔]{かんかく}を[置]{お}く」

　

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Nice usage of the black & white dots. Thanks for confirming my suspicions on the difference. But is there a way to say "Skip every third day" with おきに? Like ●●○●●○...? – istrasci Feb 11 at 23:44
thank you very good answer – Homura Rin Feb 12 at 0:10
@istrasci う～～ん・・「３日に２日」かなあ・・・？？わからへん！ww – Chocolate Feb 12 at 13:10
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@istrasci: 三日に二日, which Chocolate mentioned, roughly means what you want, but I think that 三日に二日 refers more to the ratio 2/3 than the regular pattern of Yes-Yes-No-Yes-Yes-No-…. I do not think that there is a concise phrase which exactly describes this patter Yes-Yes-No-Yes-Yes-No-…, either in English or in Japanese, unless you count expressions such as 二日おきに休む as what you want. – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 12 at 17:50

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