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As in the question title, what is the difference between the two sentences
below?

> 一{いち}時{じ}間{かん}ほどかかります。  
>  ichijikan hodo kakarimasu.
>
> 一時間ぐらいかかります。  
>  ichijikan gurai kakarimasu.

How do we choose to use one over the other?
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2011-06-02T11:39:24.780
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question
word-choice particles
What is the difference between 「ほど」 (hodo) and 「ぐらい」 (gurai)?
Those two sentences mean the same thing, but the one with ほど sounds somewhat
more polite. When they're used in the meaning "approximately", I'd say they're
more or less interchangeable.
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2011-06-02T12:00:03.843
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2011-06-02T12:00:03.843
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Matti's answer is sufficiently correct, but I'd also like to add that ほど seems
to have more of an implication of the translation "extent" whereas "くらい／ぐらい"
is more like "amount".

In the example you gave, I'd say they mean the same thing, but to me the
former sounds more like "up to one hour (and very likely to be one hour)"
whereas the latter is really "about an hour".
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2011-06-02T12:36:45.070
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2011-06-02T12:36:45.070
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I learned something different: If you use ぐらい or ごろ, then you are talking
about an approximation, either of a time span (二時間ぐらい) or of a specific point
(2メートルごろ). But if you say ほど, it's a metaphor.

死ぬほど笑った。

"I laughed so much it nearly killed me." But of course you didn't really die.
;)
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2011-06-02T12:42:59.593
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2011-06-02T13:35:20.230
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answer