とか
“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” – Tim Ferriss
We’re going to expand on the whole list thing a little bit, and then you’ll move on to the next と particle usage. At the very end, you’ll practice all of these things together.
Anyways, you just learned と and や as ways to list things. とか is like that too, though a little more flexible.
と か consists of the particles (you guessed it!) と and か put together. The か is going to make the と a little less sure (it’s like you’re asking a question with か, right?), so I bet you can guess which of the two listing particles とか is more like.
や → In fact it’s almost exactly like や
So, for example:
にほんご と えいご を はなす
I speak Japanese and English (and nothing else)
にほんご や えいご を はなす
I speak Japanese and English (and some other things)
にほんご とか えいご とか を はなす
I speak Japanese, English, and other things
The way it’s used in the Japanese sentence is a little different, though. You’ll notice the とか comes after every noun you list, not just every noun minus the last one. It’s really more like saying “thing like ____ and things like ____” where the とか is the “things like” part. Another way to translate the above とか sentence would be:
“I speak things like Japanese and things like English”
To me, it feels even more wishy washy than や when you’re listing things off. There’s definitely other things that could be listed but are being omitted when you use とか.
くるま と じてんしゃ に のります
I will ride a car and a bicycle (and nothing else)
くるま とか じてんしゃ とか に のります
I will ride a car and bicycle among other things
しごと とか がっこう とか を する つもりです
I plan to work and to do school among other things
Alright, so you just learned と, や, and とか. All of these list something off. Make sure you have a decent understanding of all three of them before moving on. At the end of the chapter we’ll practice them, but for now you just need to know how they work.