と、も、か、や、とか – How to use Listing Particles in Japanese

Japanese has several different particles for listing items. The main ones are と、も、か、や and とか. They are similar but are used differently.

https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/

と – And, With

と means and or with. It is used to list people or things. It can be used to list a large number of items or just a few.

リンゴとオレンジが欲ほしい
I want an apple and an orange

も – Both, Also

も is similar to と. It also connects things together but means something closer to both or also. も can list several items but usually, も is not used to list more than a few things. It is more common to use と for more items.
リンゴもオレンジも欲ほしい
I want both an apple and an orange

か – Or

か translates from Japanese to English as or. You use this to list a choice out of a group of items. This differs from と and も which includes all items.

リンゴかオレンジが欲ほしい
I want an apple or an orange

や – And So On

や like と and も lists a number of things or people. However, や implies that what is being listed are only examples and there are other things that are not listed. や is used when you are explaining or talking about some specific event. So if you want to talk about what you did yesterday you would use や.
昨日きのう、リンゴやオレンジを食たべた
Yesterday I ate an apple, Orange and so on

とか – For Example

とか is almost the same as や. The difference though is that とか refers to general examples unrelated to a specific event. For example, if someone asked you to name your favorite foods you would use とか.

リンゴとかオレンジとか食たべたい
I want to eat an apple, Orange and so on

If you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.

Resources

• と
• も
• か
• や
• とか