← Grammar bank

Formation: N (period / distance / area / range / number of times) + にわたって／にわたり; N + にわたる + N; N + にわたった + N

〜にわたって stresses that something covers the whole of a long period, a wide area or a broad range: five hours, ten years, the whole country, many fields (多岐にわたる). It conveys large scale, so it sounds odd with short or small spans such as 一分にわたって. It is formal and common in news and reports, and it is often written 〜に渡って. Compare 〜にかけて, which loosely marks a span from A to B (夏から秋にかけて) without saying the whole span was covered. Compare also 〜を通して／を通じて, 'throughout' a period, which focuses on continuity rather than extent, and 〜に及ぶ, which focuses on the extent or amount finally reached.

Variants: にわたり、にわたる、にわたった、に渡って

Examples

• 会議は五時間にわたって続いた。
  The meeting dragged on for a full five hours.
• 台風の影響で、広い範囲にわたり停電が発生した。
  The typhoon caused power cuts across a wide area.
• 十年にわたる研究の成果がようやく発表された。
  The results of a decade of research have finally been published.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

No post has used this pattern yet. Examples from real texts will appear here.