等(など)Such as, Things like, Etc., And so on

Structure

Noun + など
Noun + など + の + Noun

Details

About など

など is an adverbial particle that is used to express that something is being presented as an example, but that other things in the same category also exist. In this way, it is regularly translated as 'such as', 'things like', or 'and so on'.

など may be used after nouns, to describe that (A) is being presented as an example from within a group. Alternatively, など can be followed by の (B), to show that (A) is only one type of thing from the broader category, (B).

など is regularly seen in its kanji form, 等(など). This kanji itself has a similar meaning to 'etc' in English.

Fun Fact

The kanji for 等(など) is also used in the pluralizing suffix, ら. Due to this, we can see that this kanji is regularly utilized to highlight something that exists as part of a larger group.

In the first sentence, など presents (A) as being part of a larger group of similar things. This is exactly the same thing that happens in the second sentence with ら.

Fun Fact

など is also sometimes written as なんか, and has an interchangeable meaning in many situations. However, なんか will never use the kanji form of 等(など).

Examples

--:--

イタリアやアメリカなどに行(い)きたい。

I want to go to places such as America and Italy. (etc. / and so on)

フルーツはぶどうなどが好(す)きです。

As for fruits, I like grapes and such. (etc. / and so on)

趣味(しゅみ)などを教(おし)えてください。

Please tell me things like your hobbies. (etc. / and so on)

明日(あした)から、準備(じゅんび)などをするつもりです。

From tomorrow, I plan on doing things like preparing. (etc. / and so on)

数学(すうがく)などを勉強(べんきょう)します。

I study things like math. (etc. / and so on)

Get more example sentences!
Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.
Try Bunpro

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

Try Bunpro

Online
- など
  JapaneseForBeginners
- など
  kWhazit

Offline
- [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
  Page 267
- Marugoto Elementary 1 (A2) Rikai
  Page 57
- Tobira
  Page 43
Track Resources!
Bunpro tracks all of the resources you’ve visited, and offers relevant bookmarks of physical books to help with offline tracking.
Try Bunpro

など – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (9 in total)

Jake
such as, things like
Structure
- Noun + など
View on Bunpro
Ambo100
I keep confusing など with とか in my reviews. How are they used differently?

The resources for など don’t give any distinction.
s1212z
I believe the nuance is that とか (single only) implies a list since it’s a list connecting particle. So that is why they put the “among other things” in several examples to give that inflection. とか ~とか is such a flexible particle as you can list nouns/verbs/adj/noun phrases.

I see など used for nouns only. I’ve seen など used as a listing particle as well(not mentioned on BP): や・や・など where listings are for nouns only and giving a “noun, noun, noun, etc.” “or so forth” type of meaning.
Paulkun
I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but this might have been appeared in the last JLPT N5 grammar section (Dec 1st). So maybe it should be moved to the N5 Session.
mrnoone
Hey

Paulkun:

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this,

You are allowed What is more, we are really happy that you have written that!

Since the N3 exam has been added, the official word/kanji/grammar lists that are used for exams are not published anymore.
Those are simply approximated usi...
Schuylerca
Recently came across something that I am not sure if it’s colloquial or if it’s official grammer as Japanese tends to be so fluid anyway, but I went through all my grammar resources and (including bunpro), they all say など gets used with nouns. Nothing forbidding it being used with verbs but nothing about how it is used with verbs.

I know it gets used with verbs as natives have corrected some of my writing and I questioned why など vs とか and the only answer I got is that it sounded more natural. So I went on a hunt for grammar rules around using など with verbs and found nothing definitive. I did finally find in one particle book “All About Particles” by Naoko Chino mentions it can be used with verbs (the last example in the book no 6 of 6 with a meaning of “something to the effect that”.

Asked some other native speakers and it isn’t wrong but it makes me wonder…is bunpro missing this as an optional use or is this one of those things that if it were an English teacher f...
nekoyama
There are several cases where it’s used with other things than nouns, for example when quoting something (…などと, also see the とは grammar point for a mention) or in patterns like …などする.

You can find a few of them in 教師と学習者のための日本語文型辞典.
Schuylerca
I don’t have a copy of that book/ref but thank you for posting… the quoting example is exactly how it was done in the ref I mentioned…

specifically though the correction that I received was from とか to など。wasn’t quoting anything
No quoting particles… Have talked to a few Japanese friends and haven’t gotten a straight answer, not a big deal just weird…

in any case…I can kind of see how the meaning might be more natural (even if the quoting particle is omitted)…

will be interesting to see if anyone has any other references/input.

Thanks!
jelly1
I think the fun fact section could be made a little clearer. It says that the kanji 等 can be used as the pluralising suffix ら, then shows an あいつら example sentence written in hiragana (and not あいつ等).
Fuga
This should have been displayed as あいつ等, so we have just fixed it! Thank you for letting us know about this!