Let's Enjoy Japanese: To an extent

The other day I was talking to Yoshie about something and didn't know the Japanese expression for "to an extent." So I looked it up, used it, and promptly forgot. Today I was studying some kanji and came across 程 (ほど, てい), which means extent or degree, and is used in said expression. Then at lunch I was talking with another teacher about sports in Japan and I think I asked if rugby were popular in high school (since we have a decent-sized team at ours), and he replied, "Ahh...well, to some extent."

Weird how that always happens - once you learn a word, you notice it everywhere. Anyway, I'll stop beating around the bush. "To some extent" is ある程度 (ていど). If you look at these examples, you'll also see that if you stick の at the end, it is used to indicate a certain amount or degree of something.

Examples:

ある程度の成功 - a degree of success (limited success)

ある程度の時間 - a certain amount of time

ある程度の技術 - a certain degree of skill

この記事はある程度助けたらいいな！