I find myself a bit confused as to what the difference is between these two. Are they interchangeable or are there specific situations when one should be used over the other?

An easy-to-follow explanation with examples would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Just a quick general answer as I see it: 時 is at the time of and ころ is around the time of. One is more specific. A little googling can show you when one is more appropriate than the other, though.

Wow, I'm surprised there hasn't been another reply to this. I was going to reply to this earlier but figured someone with little more experience would add a better reply. Hasn't happened yet it seems.

sethg has the jist of it but I'll add a little on to this.

In general I see の時 used in situations to refer to a specific time (think abstract). So you might see it used in situations like 「子供の時」 to mean "When [you] were a child." 「高校生の時」　to mean "When you were a high school student. のころ・ごろ gets used when you are referring to a specific time , like 月曜日のころ, "Around monday" or maybe　６時のごろ "When it was/Around 6 o'clock."

Least this is the way I understand it. Maybe someone will give a better break down on it.

That would be ６時ごろ, not 6時のごろ. ごろ used as approximate time is a little different from ころ; in my experience, 時 is more common and ころ is mostly used in certain fixed phrases like 子供のころ or そのころ. I don't think there's any large difference between them, and 子供のとき or そのとき are fine as well.

Thank you for your replies. Is ころ usually written in hiragana or kanji (頃)?

Anyway, would the following basically be the same?

子供の時 vs. 子供の頃
16歳の時 vs. 16歳の頃
etc.

From what I gather, その時 seems much more common than その頃. Is that correct?

Also, if I wanted to say "at first," I would need to use 初めの頃 and not 初めの時, right?

yudantaiteki Wrote:ごろ used as approximate time is a little different from ころ

I always thought ころ and ごろ had the same meaning (or maybe ごろ being like a suffix version of ころ), but is there some subtle difference? Or did you mean to type 時 for one of these?

初めの時 is just fine.

ころ and 頃 are both relatively common.

6時ごろ means "about 6", but you can't really say 6時のころ. So they are slightly different in meaning, or perhaps just usage.

NyahK Wrote:Also, if I wanted to say "at first," I would need to use 初めの頃 and not 初めの時, right?

I've never heard 初めの頃... Something that seems better to me:
「最初は」or 「最初に」

Yes, I should have pointed out that 初めの頃, while grammatical and natural, is not the most common way to say "At first". Mesqueeb's suggestions are better. (初めの頃 gets 3million google hits, but seems specific in use.)

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merlin.codex Wrote:Firstly, 「７時ごろ」's 「ごろ」 is the same as the 「～のころ」 one. Just think about the kanji → 「頃」, and you'll see that I'm right.

While that's true (and you don't need kanji to show it), they are not interchangeable. You don't say 7時のころ or 子供ごろ.

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merlin.codex Wrote:It still doesn't change the fact that you were wrong, when you said that they were totally different.

If you can find and quote the place where I said they were "totally different", then I would gladly admit I was wrong.

Yes, 最初 is used often, but 初めの頃 is used as well (I have verified this with a couple of people).

Anyway, thanks for the responses. Seems there is no concrete explanation, though, as everyone seems to have a different opinion on the matter.