particle N4 common casualpolitewritten

とか — things like ~ (casual examples)

とか

Meaning

things like ~ / ~, for example / ~ or something — casually cites one or more representative examples, leaving the list vague

とか (from と + か) is the spoken, vaguer cousin of や. It picks out examples without committing to a full list, and unlike や it can quote actions and whole phrases too: 「行いく」とか言いってた ('said something like "I'll go"'). With a single item it softens and hedges — コーヒーとか飲のむ？ ('wanna grab coffee or something?') is gentler than naming it outright. Casual; overuse sounds noncommittal.

Key sentence

週末しゅうまつは映画えいがとか見みる。

On weekends I watch movies and stuff.

Formation

Attaches to	Form	Example
Nouns, verbs, or quoted phrases	N とか (N とか) / 〜とか言いう・する	寿司すしとか / 「無理むり」とか言いって

Examples

野菜やさいとか果物くだものとか、もっと食たべたほうがいいよ。

You should eat more vegetables and fruit and stuff.

今度こんどカラオケとか行いかない？

Wanna go to karaoke or something sometime?

彼かれ、忙いそがしいとか言いって来こなかった。

He didn't come, saying something about being busy.

Easily confused with

やや joins nouns only and is a bit more neutral; とか is more casual, vaguer, and also lists actions/quotes or hedges a single item. 〜とか(で) Sentence-final/clause とか can instead report hearsay ('I hear that ~'): 来年らいねん帰国きこくするとか. That's the 'I heard' とか, not this example-listing one.

Notes

Repeated as 〜とか〜とか it makes an explicit example list; see that entry. The casual single-item hedge (コーヒーとか) is extremely common in conversation.

See とか in real sentences

Jengo shows とか the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

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