Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 9: 13/13

やThings like, And the like

Cannot be used after verbs, unlike とか

Structure

Noun + や + Noun

Details

  • Particle

  • Sentence Ending Particle

  • Standard

About や

や is a particle that has several different roles in Japanese, with the most common being as an adverbial particle. や is used similarly to と as 'and', but rather than listing specific things in a group, it lists 'things like (A)'.

や is always used to group nouns, and simply comes directly after them.

To compare how と and や are different, imagine that there is a bowl of fruit. In this bowl there are apples, oranges, and peaches. If と is used to list the apples and oranges, it would give the listener the impression that there are no peaches. This is called an 'exhaustive' list, meaning that all possibilities should be listed. However, if や is used, the listener would know that there are other things in the bowl apart from the apples and oranges. In this way, や is a better choice when you want to say 'and', but don't want to limit the group that you are listing.

Caution

や cannot be used after verb phrases. This is done with たり, or とか.

Synonyms

Related

Examples

--:--

    コンビニでお水(みず)やおかしを買(か)った。

    I bought things like water and snacks at the convenience store.

    ひらがなやカタカナや漢字(かんじ)があります。

    There are things like Hiragana and Katakana and Kanji.

    京都(きょうと)や東京(とうきょう)や大阪(おおさか)に行(い)きました。

    I went to places like Kyoto and Tokyo and Osaka.

    サッカーやテニスをするのが好(す)き。

    I like playing sports like soccer and tennis.

    果物(くだもの)や野菜(やさい)を食(た)べてください。

    Please eat things like fruits and vegetables.

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や – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (10 in total)

  • Mino123

    Mino123

    It’s not true that you can use や just once in a sentence, you can repeat it however times you need. However, I’ve read that in writing it’s better to use AやB、C、D rather than AやBやCやD, because it makes reading easier. But AやBやCやD is still very much correct. Here are some sources with citations:

    https://jikobunseki-lab.com/ya-post-positional-particle/82/

    3つ以上の名詞並べる際に、すべて「や」で並列するのも文法的に問題はありません。

    https://bunsyou-kakikata.com/ya/

    このように、『や』を使って関連した単語を繋ぎ合わせていくことは、文法として間違ってはいません。

  • Gacee

    Gacee

    I just got a grammar review wrong inputting など instead of や. I got it wrong instead of getting a shake hint.

    I went and checked a review for nado to try and see what the nuance difference would be, and I’m having a hard time nailing down the distinction.

    The grammar hint on ya is: A particle that expresses non-exhaustive lists.

    For nado it is: A word that expresses (A), and things in the same category as (A).

    The question I got wrong was: この絵は緑色＿＿赤色がおおい。

    In this instance, it seems like I am listing something in the same category as A, so nado should at least warrant a redirection.

    In short, am I missing something?

  • JamesBunpro

    JamesBunpro

    など will typically come at the end of a list or simply after one item, to imply there are more similar things. It is sort of similar to ‘etc’. In the usage here, や will typically be used to connect items in a list, so comes in the middle of the list. That means in the question here only や would fit.

    You may see など being used at the end of a list that is connected by や. Like:

    リンゴやバナナなどが好き

    But など doesn’t need to be used with a list and can just be used to generalise a noun/category. Like:

    柿などどうですか？

    Let me know if it is still confusing but hopefully that clears it up a bit!

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