Understanding から and くらい in 「学校から帰ってきて寝るまでくらいだ」


In

> 学校から帰ってきて寝るまで **くらい** だ

  1. I was under the impression that くらい is an adverbial particle (副助詞), but here it's acting as a noun (名詞)? Can it also function as a noun, or is there an implicit noun after くらい and before だ that's being colloquially dropped (maybe something like 時間)?

  2. Here's my rough translation attempt:

> It's an approximation (くらいだ) of until (まで) I return home from school and
> sleep (学校から帰ってきて寝る).

This is pretty awkward :) I assume the sentence actually means:

> It's the rough timespan of from when I return from school until I go to
> sleep.

or

> It's roughly from when I return home from school until I go to sleep.

But if that's the case, why isn't there another から after 学校から帰ってきて? I'm not
sure if this is grammatical, but I'm tempted to parse the sentence as

  * **(学校から帰ってきて)から:** From (から) after I return home from (から) school
  * **(寝るまで)まで:** until (まで) I sleep
  * **くらいだ:** it's the approximation




I had never heard the term 副助詞 before, but after skimming
[this](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E5%89%AF%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E/) I can
see why you're confused. A general explanation of how particles classified
this way behave is likely beyond the scope of a single answer, and I'm not
sure I could write one anyway, so I'm going to try and give a simpler
intuitive explanation here.

Most of the 副助詞 in the link above modify meaning in the same way adverbs do,
but grammatically can behave like nouns or adverbs. For example:

> 疲れて倒れるほど走った ~= I ran until I collapsed from exhaustion
>
> 「どれぐらい走った？」「疲れて倒れるほどだ」 ~= "How much did you run?" "So much that I collapsed
> from exhaustion"

In both of these cases, `ほど` is providing information about the degree/extent
of the running, but in the former it grammatically behaves like an adverb and
in the latter it behaves like a noun. Note that time also behaves like this,
I.E. `2時間寝た` and `2時間だ` are both okay.

As for the sentence in your question, the previous sentence (which I'm
assuming is the one user3856370 has kindly provided) helps clarify a bit .

> ノートに名前を書ける時間は限られている。学校から帰ってきて寝るまでくらいだ
>
> ~= The time I can write my name in my notes is limited. It's only the period
> between when I come home from school and when I sleep.

In the second sentence `まで` and the `ぐらい` attached to it behave like nouns for
something like `((学校から帰ってきて寝るまで)ぐらい)だ`. Note that `ぐらい` is also used to
emphasize the low or minimal extent of something, which is where the "only" in
my English translation came from, although I'm not 100% sure about the
intended meaning in this case. See
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2392/the-difference-
between-%e3%81%8f%e3%82%89%e3%81%84-and-%e3%81%bb%e3%81%a9-in-
hyperbole/2397#2397) for more information about this.

Edit: Not sure why it's `くらい` instead of `ぐらい` in the example, although the
pronunciation rules are not super clear (see
[here](http://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/20181201_3.html#:%7E:text=%E4%BD%93%E8%A8%80%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF%E3%80%8C%E3%81%90%E3%82%89%E3%81%84%E3%80%8D%E3%81%8C,%E3%81%8C%E4%BB%98%E3%81%8F%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E3%80%82))

