たり～たりするThings like ~ and ~

Structure

Verb［た］り + （Verb［た］り） + する
Verb［た］り + ［する］Verb（したり） + する

Details

Part of Speech
Particle
Word Type
Conjunctive Particle
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Standard

About たり～たりする

In Japanese, たり is a 'conjunction particle' that is used in exactly the same way as て. However, instead of having the nuance of 'then', or 'and', it has the nuance of 'and things like'. Basically, it is used for listing sequences of events that do not happen in a specific order.

The last たり in any sequence will almost always be followed by する (or した for past tense).

From these examples we can see that たり will sometimes be said as だり. This happens with the same verbs that usually use だ for past tense (like 読(よ)んだ), or で for the て form ( like 泳(およ)いで). This will not change the meaning at all, and is only to help make the words easier to say.

To summarize, the difference between て form, and たり is as follows.

Events in order - I did (A) て, (B) て, (C) て, (D) た.

Events in no specific order - I did (D) たり, (B) たり, (A) たり, (C) たりした.

たり is frequently used when there is only one verb in the sentence. This just means that the speaker did 'things like (A)', without specifically listing anything else.

Caution

In cases where a する verb is the last verb in a particular sequence, たり will often be omitted.

Examples

--:--

家(いえ)でゲームをしたり、食(た)べたりした。

At home, I did things like play video games and eat.

音楽(おんがく)を聞(き)いたり、本(ほん)を読(よ)んだりしました。

I did things like listen to music and read books.

掃除(そうじ)をしたり、洗濯(せんたく)をしたりした。

I did things like cleaning and doing the laundry.

雨(あめ)が降(ふ)ったり、止(や)んだりするね。

It keeps doing things like raining and stopping, doesn't it.

今日(きょう)は、勉強(べんきょう)したり、練習(れんしゅう)したりする。

Today I will do things like study and practice.

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- [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
  Page 458
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  Page 122 [CH 19]
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たり～たりする – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (17 in total)

Jake
things like ~ and ~
Structure
- Verb[た]・り + Verb[た]・り・する
[Used when listing activities or attributes of something]

View on Bunpro
chrischriskurisu
Can someone help me understand why it’s not acceptable to answer:
したらしました

Is there some sort of rule that with たり, verbs are conjugated only in the casual form?

Thanks.
Pushindawood
@chrischriskurisu It looks like you might have typed したら (shitara) instead of したり (shitari) in your answer. Each review question will either specify that you need the casual form or the polite form (and throw a warning/hint if you do not) or accept both casual and polite answers. Please let us know if this is not the case for you. Cheers!
chrischriskurisu
Indeed, that’s the case. How embarrassing!!!
Thank you for your reply.
tbartst
Question- in the example sentence
毎日、漢字を書いたり、文法を勉強_____ 。
Since 毎日 is used, wouldn’t the final 〜たりする be したりしています to reflect the habitual activity?

〜たりします is listed as the correct answer.

Thanks!
Pushindawood
@tbartst Hey! While しています can work, like in English, it is more natural to use the Japanese non-past tense here. That being said, we were not catching answers that use ている or しています. I have updated the answers that throw hints/warnings to do so. Cheers!
tbartst
Thanks a lot!
Nol
The summary mentions る¹ and る² - should the second one be be る⁵? That’s what the structure legend mentions.
mrnoone
@Nol
Hey and welcome on the community forums!

Yes. you are right, I have fixed the error!
Thank you for the feedback and sorry for the inconvenience.!
melvargas
Is たり only used for two actions? Or could it used to express a list of actions?
gyroninja
You can use it for more than two actions.
mrnoone
@melvargas
Like @gyroninja says, you can use it for as many actions (well not too many of course!) as you want. Remember that by itself, the たり implies that there are other unmentioned actions/states too.

Also, if the last action is the するVerb, it is often the case that したりする is contracted to する.

本を読んだり勉強~~したり~~した→本を読んだり勉強した
I read books and studied, among others.

Cheers!
Superpnut
I have a question.
The question is
雨あめが___, やんだりする ね。[降ふる]
It keeps doing things like raining and stopping, doesn’t it.

Fair question, I answered たり. Which is incomplete
Correct answer is
ふったり
My question is where does the ふっ come from?
EdBunpro
Are you asking why it’s 降ったりinstead of 降たり？
Superpnut
No I actually just forgot that the stuff in [ x x x ] tells you what you’re supposed to use for the answer. I feel very silly right now. But uhh…ya. My fault guys
EdBunpro
Asking these things is how you learn and push your brain more and more, ask all the ‘dumb’ questions you want!
additionalramen
There are a bunch of examples like this (bolding mine):

今日は、勉強したり、練習したりする。

まだ食べたり、飲んだりしています。

Where does the “し” come from?

EDIT: Whoops! I missed that the verbs need to be in their past tense (た) form before adding -たり to the end. I think that answers that question…
CGTespy
When using たり to say “things like”, does that mean its interchangeable with や and とか ? To my understanding, those 2 particles are often used for that purpose, so yeah