particle N4 essential casualpolitewritten
〜たり〜たり — do such things as ~ and ~
〜たり〜たり
Builds on た形
Meaning
- do such things as ~ and ~ — lists a few representative actions out of more, not an exhaustive sequence
Key sentence
週末は本を読んだり音楽を聞いたりする。
On weekends I do things like read books and listen to music.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb (た-form) | V-た → V-たり | 食べた → 食べたり |
| Noun / na-adjective | + だったり | 雨 → 雨だったり |
When: The clause is normally closed with する, which carries the tense (→ 〜たり〜たりする).
Examples
休みの日は掃除をしたり買い物に行ったりする。
On my days off I do things like cleaning and going shopping.
天気が暑かったり寒かったりで体調を崩した。
The weather was hot one day, cold the next, and I got sick.
彼は来たり来なかったりで、あてにならない。
He shows up sometimes and not others — you can't count on him.
When you can't use it
- Unlike a plain て-sequence, たり〜たり does not list actions in chronological order — it samples representative activities and implies 'among other things'.
Easily confused with
と (and) と joins nouns in a complete, exhaustive list (パンと卵 = bread and eggs). たり〜たり samples actions as examples and implies there's more. や や lists nouns non-exhaustively (本や雑誌 = books and magazines, etc.). たり〜たり does the same for verbs/actions. 〜たり〜たりする Same construction — 〜たり〜たりする is the complete pattern where する closes the list and carries the tense and politeness.
See 〜たり〜たり in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜たり〜たり the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar.