Things like 何度も and 何回も are somehow common. In what cases would there be differences between the two? Are they the same differences between the plain 回 and 度? Thanks.
Answer
While there exists a large amount of interchangeability between 「[回]{かい}」 and 「[度]{ど}」, it is also true that in certain situations, only using one of the two is either "correct" or "preferred" over the other.
Interchangeable:
General frequency: "X has happened Y times.", "Person X has done something Y times.", etc.
「この[冬]{ふゆ}、４回/度[雪]{ゆき}が[降]{ふ}った。」= "It snowed 4 times this winter."
「その[映画]{えいが}は2回/度[観]{み}ました。」= "I have seen the film twice."
Not Interchangeable:
1) Ordinal numbers.
「[第]{だい}16回XYZ[大学日本語弁論大会]{だいがくにほんごべんろんたいかい}」= "The 16th Annual XYZ University Japanese Speech Contest". Using 「度」 here is incorrect.
2) Proverbs and sayings.
「二度あることは三度ある。」= "What happens twice will happen thrice." Using 「回」 here would be extremely weird.
「三度[目]{め}の[正直]{しょうじき}」= "Third time lucky." 「回」 cannot be used.
3) Decimals.
「アメリカ[人]{じん}は[週平均]{しゅうへいきん}8.6回ハンバーガーを[食]{た}べる。」= "On average, Americans eat a hamburger 8.6 times a week." 「度」 should not be used with a decimal.
4) Larger numbers.
This is a strong tendency and certainly not a written rule, but we do not use 「度」 much when the number is "large". We would not say 「140度」 or 「3800度」. We would use 「回」 for numbers that large.
(If you used 「140度」 or 「3800度」 out of context, native speakers would think, without a fail, that you were talking about a temperature of something and not a frequency -- "140 degrees Celcius", etc.)
There could be more cases where the two words are not interchangeable, but I will leave it to the experts here.
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