The と Particle: With, And, Quote
The と particle coordinates one element in a Japanese sentence with a counterpart: a list-mate ("and"), a companion ("with"), a reported quote, or a comparand.1 2 3 At JLPT N5, four core uses cover almost every occurrence a learner meets in reading and conversation. A fifth use, the natural-consequence conditional, appears often enough to deserve recognition.4 5 6
Overview
What と is, in one line
と pairs the host word with a counterpart. The host's own grammatical role (subject, object, location) is left to は, が, を, に, or で. と only names what the host is being paired with.1 2 3
Beginners first meet that pairing in four forms: listing two items together, going somewhere with a person, quoting what someone said or thought, and measuring one thing against another.7 8
りんごとバナナを食べる。7
"I eat an apple and a banana."
友達と話す。8
"I talk with a friend."
「こんにちは」と言った。9
"I said, 'Hello.'"
The English glosses change ("and," "with," quotation marks) because English uses different words for each kind of pairing. Japanese reuses one particle because the basic relation is the same: this host word is paired with that counterpart.7 8
Classification and register
Traditional Japanese school grammar (学校文法) places と in two particle categories at once.3 10 In its with-companion, quotation, and comparison uses, it is a 格助詞 (kakujoshi, "case particle"), marking a noun phrase for a grammatical relation to the predicate. In its listing use, it is a 並立助詞 (heiritsujoshi, "parallel particle"), joining two or more noun phrases into one coordinated unit.3 10
The two cells share a surface form because the underlying relation ("pair this with that") is the same; only the syntactic level differs.1 3
と is neutral across politeness levels. It is written as the single hiragana と in polite, plain, written, and spoken Japanese alike. Politeness sits on the verbs around the particle, not on と itself.1 3 11
と is one of the oldest particles in Japanese, attested in Old Japanese with comitative ("with"), quotative ("said"), and parallel ("and") functions all at once.12 The four core modern uses are not historically separate. They have been one particle since the earliest written records, which is why a single hiragana keeps them.12
JLPT level and where it appears
と is core N5. The official JLPT N5 practice workbook uses it in reading-comprehension passages from the first chapters across listing, accompaniment, and quotation, without a separate gloss.4 Standard N5 textbooks introduce the same set of uses within their first ten lessons. Genki I covers accompaniment, listing, and quotation across chapters 3, 4, and 8. Minna no Nihongo I spreads them across lessons 4 through 21, and introduces the と vs や exhaustive / non-exhaustive contrast in lesson 9.5 6
The most common N5 confusion point is the と vs や split for listing: exhaustive vs non-exhaustive. The second is the と vs に split for accompaniment vs target, where some verbs (会う, 似る) prefer one particle against what the English gloss might suggest.1 8 13 14 15 Both contrasts are unpacked in the と vs nearby particles section below.
Form and pronunciation
Surface form
The particle と is written as the single hiragana と and pronounced [to], with a short vowel.1 3 It is never lengthened to とう the way some other short syllables stretch in compounds.3 と carries no pitch accent of its own. It inherits the prosodic shape of the noun phrase or quoted material it attaches to.1
と does not conjugate and undergoes no voicing changes. The same hiragana appears inside unrelated words (友 tomo, 都 to). You identify particle と by its position and function, not by spelling alone.3 10
Attachment differs by use. と attaches directly to a noun in its listing, accompaniment, and comparison uses ([noun] + と).1 3 In its quotation use, it attaches to the right edge of the quoted material. It comes directly after a verb or i-adjective in plain form, after a noun or na-adjective via the copula だ, and after a polite-form predicate inside a direct quote with the polite form preserved.11 8 9 In its conditional use, it attaches to a clause-final plain-form non-past predicate.16 17 18
父と母。19
"[My] father and mother."
兄と一緒に行く。5
"I go together with my older brother."
雨が降ると思う。9
"I think it will rain."
Position in the clause
For listing, と sits between each pair of conjoined nouns: A と B, or A と B と C, or A と B と C と D.1 19 13 14 The pattern is symmetrical. It does not have the head-and-tail asymmetry English shows in "A, B, and C."1
For accompaniment and comparison, the と-phrase is pre-verbal and freely orderable with other oblique phrases in the same clause.1 3 Japanese is head-final: the predicate is fixed at the end. Each case-marked noun phrase carries its own role, so the と-phrase can move without changing meaning.20 3
For quotation, と sits at the right edge of the quoted material, immediately before the reporting verb.11 8 9 An intervening particle between と and the reporting verb is ungrammatical.9
For the conditional, と attaches to the right edge of a clause-final plain-form non-past predicate, and the result clause follows.16 18
私は友達と公園で遊ぶ。7
"I play with my friend at the park."
「明日来ます」と言いました。9
"He said, 'I will come tomorrow.'"
The four core uses of と
The four senses are easier to remember as a fan from one core idea: と pairs the host word with a counterpart, and the kind of counterpart determines the English gloss.
1. Exhaustive listing "and" between nouns (りんごとバナナを食べる)
と joins two or more nouns into a closed, exhaustive list.1 7 8 13 14 The listener should infer "these and only these," not "these among others." The standard N5 pattern is A と B. You can extend it to A と B と C と D, with と sitting between each pair.
The exhaustive reading is the diagnostic. 学生と先生が来た claims that exactly the student and the teacher came. The open-list counterpart 学生や先生が来た leaves room for other arrivals.8 13 14 English "and" hides this distinction, but Japanese forces the speaker to choose.14
りんごとバナナを食べる。7
"I eat an apple and a banana."
日本語と英語を話します。19
"I speak Japanese and English."
パンと牛乳とりんごを買った。19
"I bought bread, milk, and an apple."
と cannot list verbs or clauses.1 7 8 "I ate and I left" is never 食べたと出た in standard Japanese. The corresponding sentence uses the te-form, 食べて出た. The conditional と is a different construction with a different attachment site (clause-final), not a counter-example to the noun-only listing rule.16 18
2. Accompaniment "with" (友達と話す)
と marks the person, animal, or entity with whom an action takes place.1 5 7 8 13 The standard N5 pattern is [companion-noun + と] + [predicate]. Speakers often add 一緒に ("together") before the verb for emphasis.5 7
The range covers joint activity (友達と遊ぶ "play with a friend"), reciprocal action (友達と話す "talk with a friend," where both parties speak), and co-actors required by verbs whose case-frame demands と.1 5 7 8
友達と話します。19
"I talk with my friend."
家族と旅行に行きます。5
"I go on a trip with my family."
犬と遊ぶのが大好きです。19
"I love playing with dogs."
Reciprocal-verb class
A small set of verbs requires と for its second participant because the action is symmetrical: both parties act on each other.8 These are not optional accompaniment. The と is part of the verb's case-frame, the way English requires "with" after "collide" or "argue."
Typical members include 結婚する ("marry"), 会う ("meet," though see the と vs に note below), 話す ("talk"), けんかする ("quarrel"), 約束する ("promise"), and 似る ("resemble").1 8
彼女と結婚します。8
"I will marry her."
妹とけんかをした。1
"I quarrelled with my younger sister."
English "with" collapses two Japanese particles. と marks an animate co-actor. で marks an inanimate tool, vehicle, or method.1 7 ×鉛筆と書く ("write with a pencil") is the error class because と pulls the pencil into the role of a co-writer. The correct form is 鉛筆で書く. The fix is mechanical: animate co-actor → と; inanimate tool, vehicle, or method → で.1
A standard teaching diagnostic is the 一緒に test: if 一緒に ("together") can be inserted before the verb without changing the meaning, the と-phrase is accompaniment. If not, と is doing something else.5 7 友達と一緒に行く is natural. ×鉛筆と一緒に書く is anomalous because the pencil is not a co-actor.1
3. Quotation marker (「こんにちは」と言う, おいしいと思う)
と marks the right edge of a quoted or reported thought. It attaches directly to the quoted material and stands immediately before the reporting verb.1 11 8 9 The construction works for both direct quotation (with 鉤括弧 「」, the literal words) and indirect quotation (no kagikakko, the content rephrased).9
The top reporting verbs are 言う ("say"), 思う ("think"), 考える ("think over"), 聞く ("hear / ask"), and 話す ("speak / tell"). Other common hosts include 書く ("write"), 答える ("answer"), and 呼ぶ ("call [something X]").11 9
Attachment depends on what the quoted predicate ends in.
| Quoted predicate ends in | Attachment | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb (plain form) | Direct | 雨が降ると思う |
| I-adjective (plain form) | Direct | おいしいと言った |
| Noun | Copula だ before と | 学生だと言った |
| Na-adjective | Copula だ before と | 静かだと思う |
| Polite-form predicate (inside direct quote) | Polite form preserved | 「行きます」と言いました |
雨が降ると思います。9
"I think it will rain."
田中さんは学生だと言いました。11
"Mr. Tanaka said he is a student."
この花は何と言いますか。1
"What is this flower called?"
The quotation construction is wider than spoken words. It marks reported thought (〜と思う), reported hearing (〜と聞く), reported writing (〜と書く), and naming (〜と言う in the "what is X called?" frame).1 9 Its unifying function is "marks the content of a reporting or cognitive act."1
4. Comparison anchor (Aは Bと比べて...)
と marks the standard of comparison in the comparative construction と比べて / と比べると ("compared to B").1 8 The N5-targeted pattern is [comparand]と比べて [evaluation]. The と is the case particle pairing the host with a yardstick. 比べて is the te-form of 比べる ("compare"), the verbal head of the construction.1
The case-particle と also surfaces with the comparison-frame verbs 同じ ("the same"), 違う ("different"), 似る ("resemble"), and 比べる ("compare").8 In these constructions, と marks the comparand.8
去年と比べて寒いです。1
"It is cold compared to last year."
私と同じです。8
"It is the same as me."
あなたと違います。8
"It is different from you."
母と似ています。8
"I resemble my mother."
A second pattern is the symmetric-comparison frame A と B では どちらが …, where と co-ordinates the two compared items inside a では-frame.1
犬と猫ではどちらが好きですか。1
"Which do you prefer, dogs or cats?"
The full comparative system (より, ほど, の方が, 一番) sits outside the N5 scope of this article. The N5 reader needs to recognize と比べて, 同じ, 違う, and 似る in real examples. The deeper treatment lives in the dedicated adjective-comparison article.1
A fifth use, in concept only: the natural-consequence conditional
What it looks like
と also attaches to a clause-final plain-form non-past predicate to express a natural or inevitable consequence: when X happens, Y follows.16 17 18 The conditional construction attaches in a different place from the post-nominal uses (clause-final, not after a noun), but the underlying coordination logic is the same. X is paired with Y as its natural follow-on.16 18
Typical contexts are scientific or seasonal facts, mechanical operations, habitual routines, and inevitable consequences.16 18
春になると桜が咲きます。16
"When spring comes, cherry blossoms bloom."
ボタンを押すとドアが開く。18
"If you press the button, the door opens."
電気を消すと暗くなる。16
"If you turn off the lights, it gets dark."
Why we are not unpacking it here
The conditional と belongs to a four-way Japanese conditional system in which と alternates with ば, たら, and なら, each carrying its own meaning and restrictions.16 17 A learner needs the full contrast set to use any one of them correctly. That is why the system lives in its own dedicated article on Japanese conditionals; the N5 reader needs only recognition.16 17
The headline restriction is worth knowing even at concept level. The result clause of a と-conditional cannot contain a command, request, suggestion, or expression of speaker volition.17 18 ×暇だと、手伝って ("if you are free, help me") is wrong because 手伝って is a request; the natural form uses なら: 暇なら、手伝って.17 A second restriction is mechanical: the subordinate clause must be in non-past tense.18
The unifying logic: と co-ordinates, it does not name an argument
Why all four (or five) senses are the same particle
Every use of と pairs the host element with a counterpart, rather than naming the subject, object, or location of the predicate.1 2 7 8 Whether it is a list-mate, companion, reporting verb, comparand, or consequence, the と-marked element is always the second member of a pair. It is never an argument of the predicate in its own right.1 7
The contrast with the other case particles is structural.
| Particle | What it marks |
|---|---|
| は / が | The subject or topic, the participant the predicate is asserted of |
| を | The direct object, the participant the verb acts on |
| に | An endpoint or anchor (existence location, motion goal, recipient, resulting state) |
| で | A frame or condition (action location, instrument, cause, material) |
| と | A co-ordinated counterpart (list-mate, companion, quote, comparand, consequence) |
This is why the slots never collide. 友達と公園で本を読む ("I read a book with my friend at the park") has は / が for the (elided) subject, を for the object, で for the location of action, and と for the companion.1 20 Each particle owns its own role. と is for the counterpart, not the argument.
Why this matters for N5 learners
Once a learner sees と as "coordinate this with that," the apparent jump from "and" to "with" to quotation marker stops looking arbitrary.7 8 The English glosses change because English uses different words for each pairing. Japanese reuses one particle because the relation is the same.7
Three common N5 puzzles resolve under the pairing intuition.7 8 15 Why do 友達と話す and 友達に話す both exist? と pairs the friend with the speaker as co-actors (both speak, reciprocal). に anchors the friend as the direction the talk is aimed at (one direction). Why does おいしいと言う use と, while ×おいしくて言う is wrong? と pairs the quoted content with the reporting verb. The te-form is for sequential or causal joining of events, not for marking a quote. Why does 春と夏 list exactly two seasons, while 春や夏 implies others? と pairs the items into a closed set. や lists them as examples of an open set.
と vs nearby particles
と vs や: exhaustive vs non-exhaustive listing
A と B = "A and B (exhaustive list)." A や B = "A and B among others (open list)."8 13 14 The two particles split the territory English collapses under "and." Japanese forces the speaker to indicate whether the list is closed or open.14
The diagnostic: if the speaker can confidently enumerate every relevant item, use と. If "etc." is in the air or the list is open-ended, use や.8 14
朝ごはんはパンと牛乳です。19
"Breakfast is bread and milk."
朝ごはんはパンや牛乳などです。14
"Breakfast is bread, milk, and the like."
In conversational Japanese, とか covers the same open-list territory as や with a more casual register.8 りんごとかバナナとかを買った is the conversational equivalent of りんごやバナナを買った. The full と / や / とか pattern is the subject of dedicated articles on the や and とか particles. The concept-level mention here is enough for the N5 reader to recognize the contrast.
と vs に: companion vs target of an interaction
友達と話す ("talk with a friend," reciprocal, both parties speak) and 友達に話す ("talk to a friend," directional, the friend is the recipient) use the same verb and the same noun. They differ only in the particle.1 15 と marks the co-actor. に marks the target.
友達と話します。19
"I talk with my friend."
友達に話します。1
"I talk to my friend."
For certain verbs, the verb chooses the particle. 会う ("meet") takes に in modern Japanese, 友達に会う, despite the English gloss "meet with."15 友達と会う is grammatical but reads as a planned, mutual meeting. Textbooks teach 友達に会う as the unmarked form. Learners often default to と and produce a sentence that is not wrong but is marked.
The verbs 結婚する ("marry") and 出会う ("come across, encounter") take と because the action is genuinely reciprocal: there is no marrying or chance meeting without two parties.1 8 会う sits between the two cases, which is why textbooks present it as a に-verb to keep the rule clean.15
友達に会いました。15
"I met my friend."
The teaching gloss is: と is reciprocal (both parties act), while に is directional (one party acts on or toward the other). For verbs that select に (会う, 似る, 似合う), the verb wins. For verbs with a true co-actor (話す, 遊ぶ, 結婚する), と is the unmarked choice.1 15
と vs で: companion vs means
友達と行く ("go with a friend," accompaniment) and バスで行く ("go by bus," means) both translate as English "with / by," but Japanese splits the two strictly by the animacy and co-actor status of the noun.1 7 A friend is a co-actor (the friend also goes). A bus is a means (the speaker is transported by it). Animate co-actor → と; inanimate tool, vehicle, or method → で.1
友達と行きます。5
"I go with my friend."
バスで行きます。19
"I go by bus."
鉛筆で書きます。19
"I write with a pencil."
The 一緒に test from the Accompaniment section applies here as well: 一緒に can only follow と-phrases, not で-phrases. 友達と一緒に行く is natural. ×バスで一緒に行く is anomalous because the bus is not a co-actor.5 7
Good to know
The quotation と stays even when the quote ends in a polite form
A direct quote (with 鉤括弧) preserves the quoted speaker's register inside the quote. と marks the seam between the quote and the reporting verb. It does not level the register of the quote itself.9
「行きます」と言いました keeps ます inside the quote because the speaker literally said the polite form. The reporting verb 言いました is independently polite. This property makes と-quotation a true direct-quote marker rather than a paraphrase device.9
「行きます」と言いました。9
"He said, 'I will go.'"
For indirect (reported) speech without 鉤括弧, the plain form is standard. 田中さんは行くと言いました is the natural indirect form. ×田中さんは行きますと言いました without 鉤括弧 sounds like the speaker is trying to quote verbatim without marking the quote.9
と after a noun in quotation requires the copula
When the quoted content ends in a noun or a na-adjective, the copula だ must come between the predicate and と.11 8 9 学生だと言った is the natural sentence for "[he] said [he] is a student." ×学生と言った is ambiguous (it reads as the naming use, "called 'student'") and is not the right form for the intended meaning.11 The だ is the copula attaching the noun-predicate to と, not part of the quoted noun itself.
The same rule applies to na-adjectives: 静かだと思う ("I think it is quiet") requires the だ. ×静かと思う is ungrammatical for that meaning.11 After i-adjectives and verbs in plain form, no copula is needed.
田中さんは学生だと言いました。11
"Mr. Tanaka said he is a student."
The fix is mechanical: noun or na-adjective before quotation-と → insert だ. This is one of the highest-frequency N5 errors, and the correction is fully rule-based.
Listing-と cannot join verbs or clauses
"I ate and I left" is never 食べたと出た in standard Japanese.1 7 For verb or clause joining, the corresponding sentence uses the te-form: 食べて出た. と joins nouns in lists, not events in sequences.7
The error class is ×昨日勉強したと寝た, attempting "I studied yesterday and went to sleep." The correct form is the te-form, 昨日勉強して寝た.1 Learners default to と because the English gloss "and" matches. The fix is to use the te-form for verb sequences.
昨日勉強して寝た。1
"Yesterday I studied and went to sleep."
The conditional と (clause-final, plain-form non-past predicate + と + result clause) is a separate construction with a different attachment site, not a counter-example to the noun-list rule.16 18
The casual contraction って
In spoken Japanese, って frequently replaces と as the quotation marker (and also as the casual accompaniment / topic-tagging particle in some contexts).8 おいしいって言った is the conversational equivalent of おいしいと言った. 「行く」って言ってた replaces 「行く」と言っていた in the same register.8
って is conversational and does not appear in formal written prose. と is the unmarked form. The full treatment of って (its quotative use, its topic-style use, and its function as a copula-substitute in spoken Japanese) is the subject of a dedicated article on the って particle. In this article, the takeaway is that って is the casual contraction of quotation-と.
と is one of the oldest particles in the language
と is attested in Old Japanese (eighth century) with comitative ("with"), quotative ("said"), and parallel ("and") functions all at once.12 The four core modern functions are not historically separate. A single hiragana carries multiple jobs because those jobs have been one particle since the language's first written records.12
The conditional と is a later specialization of the same coordinating logic.12 Classical Japanese had a richer conditional morphology that contracted into the modern four-way system (と / ば / たら / なら) over the Middle and Early Modern Japanese periods.12 The modern conditional と inherits the coordination function: it pairs an antecedent clause with its natural-consequence result, the same "pair X with Y" intuition that runs through the noun-marking uses.12 7
Mnemonic: と pairs
The basic mnemonic for と is "と pairs." Pair items (and), pair people (with), pair a quote with a verb (quotation), pair a thing with a yardstick (comparison), pair a cause with a consequence (conditional).7 8 When in doubt about whether と is the right particle, ask what the と is pairing the host word with.
Once that basic idea is internalized, the case-grammar gloss is: と coordinates the host with a counterpart that is not an argument of the predicate.1 7 This explains why all five uses share a particle (they share the pairing relation) and why と does not collide with は, が, を, に, or で. Those mark predicate arguments; と marks a counterpart.
See also
- The に Particle: A Multi-Function Workhorse
- The で Particle: Means and Location of Action
- は vs が in Japanese: A Beginner's First Pass
- Topic vs. Subject in Japanese: The Hidden Slot
- に vs. で for Location in Japanese: Existence vs. Action
- Equality and Approximation in Japanese: と同じくらい, ぐらい, ほど〜ない