LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 166 JLPT N4
And, Or Something Like It (と・や)
と and や both connect nouns into a list, but と claims completeness, “these and only these,” while や lists a couple of representative examples out of a larger, unstated set, closer to “things like.”
Two teachers teach the history class. Tanaka-sensei and Yamada-sensei.
The university cafeteria has lots of dishes I like. Things like ramen and tonkatsu.
In Real Life
田中先生と山田先生 claims there are exactly two teachers, no more. ラーメンや豚カツ names two dishes but implies there are others too, や never claims the list is finished. This distinction matters most when the completeness of the list is actually the point being made.
My younger brother can also play various instruments, like violin and guitar.
In Real Life
や very often pairs with など (etcetera) at the end of the list, making the incompleteness explicit, バイオリンやギターなど, “violin, guitar, and so on,” reinforcing that more instruments could be named but aren’t.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| international student | |
| cafeteria | |
| menu | |
| pork cutlet | |
| to be closed | |
| company employee | |
| to be tall | |
| good at | |
| to major in | |
| violin | |
| guitar | |
| musical instrument | |
| et cetera, and so on | |
| complete | |
| a part, some | |
| example | |
| to list, enumerate | |
| all, everything | |
| to limit, restrict | |
| to include |