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Someone just asked me the difference between 「ことがある」(when it means "there are
times when") and 「ときがある」, and I actually couldn't answer since I have never
really thought about this...

Could someone teach me the nuance between those two? thanks.
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2016-02-18T12:47:06.243
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word-choice
Difference between ときがある and ことがある
This is a difference that I've been interested in myself for sometime.

The other day, I saw a children's education video (made for Japanese children)
which specifically said the "〜したときがある” version was incorrect and ”〜したことがある"
was correct. In all Japanese textbooks I have read, I have only seen こと used
for this construction.

I found [this](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1169988.html) page where a Japanese
person is asking the same question.

The quick summary is that several people say using とき for this is just plain
incorrect, and one person says it is a new expression young people have
started using. The fact the children's video specifically highlights this
grammar mistake makes sense if many young people have started using it.

Some other people say it might be a dialect of certain regions, and one person
specifically says he/she has heard someone using it in a certain region. The
question poster asks whether using とき this way is an expression particular to
Tokyo, and while one answerer agrees with this, another person disagrees. (One
person also debates what "Tokyo dialect" means since some consider their
Japanese the "standard", though I won't get into this here).

Also, one person does say that the specific phrase "するときもある" would be
acceptable.

So I think the short answer is that Japanese people will understand if you use
〜とき, however you should definitely stick with 〜こと to be safe.
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> 「ことがある」(when it means "there are times when") and 「ときがある」

I don't see much difference between:

> ワインを飲んで頭が痛くなる **こと** があるんです。  
>  ワインを飲んで頭が痛くなる **とき** があるんです。

I think they practically mean the same thing. "There are times when~~"
"sometimes / occasionally~~". To me, ときがある sounds a little bit more casual
than ことがある.
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I am going to discuss two things that I feel might be of interest.

> 1) Explicit Meaning
>
> 2) Implied Frequency & Predictability

The differences are quite subtle. In fact, unless your friend is really
approaching a native-level fluency, I might just show him/her @choco's answer
and hide my own. Showing my answer could cause more confusion.

> **_Explicit Meaning:_**

The difference is that while the expression 「 **とき** がある」 already contains a
time/frequency word in 「とき」, 「 **こと** がある」 does not contain such an element at
least explicitly.

In other words, 「～～ **とき** がある」, all by itself, means " ** _there are times
when ~~_**.", " ** _(Something) happens once in a while_**.", etc. just like
one might expect the expression to literally mean. **An additional frequency
word would often be unnecessary** , if not forbidden. If I said:

> 「 **ときどき** 食べすぎる **とき** がある。」,

the redundancy should be "physically" clear. (I assure you, though, that
native speakers sometimes do say something like that in informal settings.)

With 「 **こと** がある」, however, it would actually sound better if you
intentionally added a frequency word to it for clarity.

> 「 **ときどき** 食べすぎる **こと** がある。」

sounds 100% natural with no redundancy or a hint of awkwardness.

> **_Implied Frequency & Predictability:_**

This is in no way a clear-cut rule or anything, but I feel as a native speaker
that「 **とき** がある」 would often tend to imply a higher frequency of the event
than 「 **こと** がある」 would.

In addition, 「 **こと** がある」 would tend to express a higher degree of
**_unpredictability_** of the event than 「 **とき** がある」 would. There is this
"as-a-matter-of-fact" kind of feeling associated with 「 **とき** がある」.

There is a sort of an "element of surprise" expressed in 「 **こと** がある」, at
least more so than in 「 **とき** がある」.
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