Japanese Listing Nouns
So we have only learned と
. But there are lots of other ways. Will update as I learn.
Sources:
Tae Kim: Listing Multiple Nouns
Tae Kim: Noun-related Particles
と and も
と
and も
are used to connect different nouns together to form an inclusive group. Similar to English “and”, forms a inclusive group of all of the nouns it connects.
も
is used as “both”, adds more emphasis. You get a noun compound afterwards.
Ex.
僕と母と父と兄
- “Me, my mother, my father, and my older brother”
宿題も仕事も
- “Both homework and work”
や and とか
や
and とか
are similar to と
in that they form a list of nouns, but they add the implication that not all items in the list may apply, and that there may be others that are unlisted. Similar to English “and/or, … etc” or “things like …”.
Difference is that とか
is more colloquial and casual.
Ex.
新しい靴とかシャツとかズボンは要るの
- “I need new (things like) shoes, shirts, and pants (and others)”
何がありますか?じゃあ、車や飛行機や戦車があります
- “What is there? Well, there are (things like) cars, planes, and tanks (etc.)”
か
Can be used to connect multiple nouns to give the English meaning of “or”. Note it is actually the same as the か
question particle. This is just a contraction of multiple sentence fragment questions. Used mainly for casual. For formal, you can use 又は
for “or/otherwise” or just use sentence fragments.
今日か明日がいいと思っている
- “I think today or tomorrow is good”
これかこれかこれができる
- “I can do this, this, or this”
Vocab:
Here are some kanji from the lessons that I wasn’t really familiar with at this point:
靴
seen it around. Means “shoe”. Pronounced “kutsu”.