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/INDEX
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、リンゴやオレンジを食べた
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.