The とか Particle: Casual Non-Exhaustive Listing

The とか particle marks casual non-exhaustive listing. It is a parallel particle (並列助詞) that pairs two or more sample items from a wider implied set, as the conversational sibling of や and と.¹ The same particle also hedges a quoted clause into "or something like that." Seeing both jobs as one form helps unlock natural casual speech.¹²

Overview

The toka particle that Japanese learners meet at N4 is casual. Reference grammars classify it as the parallel particle と combined with the indefinite sub-particle か.¹ It stacks across nouns, dictionary-form verbs, and adjectives. It is the only common parallel particle that attaches freely to verb phrases.³⁴ Together with や (non-exhaustive, noun-only) and と (exhaustive), it completes the casual half of the listing system.⁵⁴

What とか is and where it sits in the system

とか is one of the seven 並列助詞 (parallel particles) the pedagogy reference lists: と, も, に, か, や, とか, だの.⁴ Within that family, it fills the casual sample-listing slot. The items are not exhaustive, and the register is conversational rather than written.¹⁴

The や Particle: Non-Exhaustive Listing "And" article covers the noun-only sibling. The と Particle: With, And, Quote article covers the exhaustive sibling. Use とか when you want a listing particle with a wider attachment range and a casual feel.⁵⁴

Casual register first, formal substitutes later

とか is comfortable in chat, speech, and informal prose. In essays, business e-mail, or JLPT writing tasks, use や〜など for a noun list. For a verb-phrase list, use a たり〜たり frame or a coordinated clause.³⁵⁴

When you reach for とか

Use this three-part test. First, the register is casual: dictionary corpora and pedagogy references both flag the form as conversational.¹⁴ Second, the list is open: 「例示的に並列・列挙」(exemplifying parallel listing) defines the items as samples from a wider implied set.¹ Third, the items can be nouns or full verb phrases, which is where とか's attachment range exceeds や.³⁴

Form: how とか attaches

とか takes nouns, dictionary-form verbs, plain-form い-adjectives, and stem + だ for な-adjectives.³⁶ The particle is normally repeated after every listed item. The final occurrence is sometimes dropped or replaced by a generic head noun or など.¹³

After nouns

Attachment rule: noun + とか, repeated after each listed noun. The final とか may be omitted. A closing tag such as など or a generic head noun (e.g. 日本食) is common.¹³

寿司すしとか天てんぷらとか、日本食にほんしょくはおいしい。⁵
"Japanese food like sushi or tempura is delicious."

昨日きのうデパートで、セーターとかくつとかを買かった。⁷
"Yesterday I bought a sweater, shoes, and some other things at the department store."

趣味しゅみとかありますか。⁷
"Do you have any hobbies or anything?"

The third example shows the open-ended pattern: a single noun + とか implies "and other items like this," without a second listed item.⁷

After verbs and verb phrases

Attachment rule: verb in dictionary form + とか. This syntactic property distinguishes とか from や: や cannot attach to verb phrases.³⁴ Pedagogy references make the contrast explicit. In a clausal predicate context, only とか is grammatical.⁴

休やすみにはジョギングをするとか、テニスをするとかしています。⁷
"On my days off I do things like jogging and tennis."

明日あしたとか今週末こんしゅうまつとか、暇ひまなら、映画えいがを見みに行いこう。³
"If you're free, let's go see a movie tomorrow or this weekend or whenever."

After い-adjectives and な-adjectives

Attachment rule: い-adjective in plain form + とか; な-adjective stem + だ + とか.⁶ Daijirin's example below shows a parallel list headed by い-adjectives.⁸

かゆいとか痛いたいなんて言いっていられない。⁸
"I'm in no position to be saying things like 'it itches' or 'it hurts'."

Closing the list: bare とか, など, or trailing off

Casual speech closes a とか list in three ways. Pattern A repeats とか on every item and keeps the final occurrence: 「AとかBとか」.³⁷ Pattern B drops the final とか and ends on a bare item or a generic head. 「漱石とか鴎外とかといった文人」folds the list into a noun modifier, while 「寿司とか天ぷら…日本食は…」folds it into a topic noun.¹⁵ Pattern C leaves the list open with a single trailing とか, signalling "and so on," as in 「趣味とかありますか」.⁷

Pattern	Form	Effect
A. Repeated, closed	AとかBとか	Two named samples; both とか kept
B. Repeated, generic head	AとかBとか + 生鮮食品 / 日本食	Names a category that the samples belong to
C. Single, trailing	Aとか…?	Implies "and others like A"

Function 1: casual listing of samples

The core meaning of listing とか is "things like X, Y, among others."¹³ The listed items are samples, not the full set. The tone fits chat, speech, and casual writing.¹⁴

"Among others", the non-exhaustive frame

Daijisen glosses the listing sense as 「例示的に並列・列挙」(exemplifying parallel listing). This frames the listed items as examples, not the full set.¹ Bunpro's pedagogy gloss reads "'things like (A), (B), and so forth' without any negative implication," contrasting with やら, which carries an uncertain tone.³

青あおとか水色みずいろが好すき。³
"I like blue, light blue, that kind of color."

私わたしはおすしとかラーメンとか日本料理にほんりょうりが好すきです。⁷
"I like Japanese food like sushi and ramen."

Why とか can list verb phrases when や cannot

や is restricted to nouns. とか and だの attach to nouns and to quoted or clausal phrases (引用節), giving them a syntactic flexibility や lacks.⁴ The minimal pair from the pedagogy-teacher reference makes the restriction concrete: 「彼は日本語（×や 〇とか）を勉強している」, a clausal or verb-phrase context, allows とか but not や.⁴ Bunpro reinforces the same point in learner-facing terms: とか may be used with verb phrases, in contrast to や, which can only list nouns.³

Wrong particle for a verb-phrase list

や cannot list verb phrases. A sentence such as 「映画を見るや、買い物に行く」 is not a verb-phrase list. Readers will parse it as a different や construction. The right particle for a casual verb-phrase list is とか, not や.³⁴

Quick contrast: と (closed) vs や (open, noun-only) vs とか (open, anything, casual)

と lists items exhaustively: the listed items are all there is.⁵⁴ や lists items non-exhaustively (more items exist), but attaches only to nouns.⁵⁴ とか lists items non-exhaustively. It attaches to nouns, verbs, or adjectives, and it registers as casual.³⁵⁴

Wasabi shows the surface contrast between と and や with paired examples: 「私と田中さんと山本さんは英語を勉強する」(exhaustive) versus 「靴や帽子を買う」(non-exhaustive, noun-only).⁵

Particle	Listing scope	Attaches to	Register
と	Exhaustive (closed)	Nouns	Neutral
や	Non-exhaustive (open)	Nouns only	Neutral to formal
とか	Non-exhaustive (open)	Nouns, verbs, adjectives	Casual

Function 2: hedged quotation with 〜とか言ってた

A second dictionary-grade function of the same particle is hedging a quoted clause.¹² Where a listing とか says "and other items," a hedging とか says "or something like that." It signals that the speaker is not committing to the exact wording.¹

The "or something like that" reading

Daijisen records a distinct sense for とか: 「はっきりしない事柄を指示する意を表す」(expresses reference to indefinite matters). Its worked example is 「家族が病気だとかで困っているらしい」.¹ Liu (2011) frames this as the ぼかし表現 ("hedging expression") use of とか, treating it as a productive function of the same particle, not a homonym.²

家族かぞくが病気びょうきだとかで困こまっているらしい。¹
"Apparently they're in trouble because of something like a family illness."

彼かれはもうここには来こないとか言いっていた。⁶
"He was saying something like he wouldn't come here anymore."

Common frames: 〜とか言ってた, 〜とか思って, 〜とか聞いた

The hedging とか most commonly attaches to a quoted-clause complement of a verb of speech or thought. The speaker uses it to mark non-commitment to the exact wording.¹² Maggie Sensei lists saying, hearing, and thinking frames as the canonical environments for this use, with the gloss "said something like…".⁶

川口かわぐちさんは、あの銀行ぎんこうに勤つとめるとか勤つとめないとか言いっていましたが、どうなりましたか。⁷
"Kawaguchi was saying things like he'd work for that bank, then like he wouldn't. What happened?"

Why this is the same particle, etymologically

The Daijisen entry analyses both senses as 格助詞・並立助詞「と」＋ 副助詞「か」: the parallel or quotative と plus the indefinite or uncertain か.¹ 『精選版 日本国語大辞典』 notes that the embedded か was treated as a 係助詞 (binding particle) in pre-medieval Japanese and was reanalysed as a 副助詞 (sub-particle) in the modern period. The listing and hedging functions are surface specialisations of the same compound.⁹ Liu (2011) argues that the hedging use is best treated as a productive extension of the listing or quotative core, not a separate lexical item.²

Register and where とか does not belong

Using とか in formal writing is the most common register slip learners make with this particle. Reference grammars tag the form as conversational. Substituting it into business prose imports the casual tone Daijisen and the pedagogy reference both flag.¹⁴

Spoken and casual written register

Daijisen tags the post-1990s hedging extension as a casual-speech development that spread from youth to general speakers. The form is informally called 「とか弁」, and Daijirin corroborates the gloss.¹⁸ The pedagogy-teacher reference identifies とか as one of the parallel particles that carries a casual register, in contrast with や and と.⁴ Chat, LINE messages, casual speech, and blog prose are the natural home for the particle.

Formal writing: swap とか for や or など

In formal contexts such as written apologies, 「こちらの不注意とかが原因で」reads as flippant despite the surrounding polite frame.⁴ Bunpro flags the contrast with など: など usually follows a single noun or ends a list, implying that the items are representative. とか〜とか is the casual-register sibling.³ The natural substitutions are や〜など for a non-exhaustive noun list, と for an exhaustive noun list, and a たり〜たり frame or a coordinated clause for a verb-phrase list (since や cannot host verb phrases at all).³⁵⁴

とか in business e-mail miscolours the apology

A formal apology line such as 「こちらの不注意とかが原因で」carries the conversational register Daijisen documents and the pedagogy reference flags. Readers parse the とか as flippant even though the surrounding politeness is intact. Rewrite as 「こちらの不注意などが原因で」or drop the listing entirely.⁴

What overusing とか sounds like

The pedagogy-teacher reference warns that とか in formal contexts undermines politeness. Learners produce the same flippancy when they import the listing-とか habit into business e-mail.⁴ Liu (2011) characterises the casual hedging use as a productive ぼかし strategy. Heavy use signals non-commitment, which can make a sentence sound under-committed when the speaker did not intend it to.²

Good to know

Pitfall: attaching とか after a noun + だ for a neutral list

Learners reaching for とか after a noun sometimes overcorrect to noun + だ + とか for a neutral sample list. Dictionaries illustrate the bare-noun form: 「漱石とか鴎外とか」.¹ The 〜だとか pattern does exist, but its sense is the hedged-quotative one ("they say it's X or something") attested by 「家族が病気だとかで」. Using it for a neutral list miscolours the sentence as hearsay.¹

ピザとかパスタとかが好すき。¹
"I like things like pizza and pasta."

Mnemonic: と + か = "and-or-whatever"

The compositional analysis comes from dictionaries, not folk etymology: 並立助詞「と」("and") plus 副助詞「か」("indefinite/uncertain") spells out "X and Y or whatever."¹ Remembering the two source particles tells you why the listing and hedging senses share a form.

Etymology aside: one particle, two jobs

『精選版 日本国語大辞典』 records that か was a 係助詞 (binding particle) in pre-medieval Japanese and was reanalysed as a 副助詞 (sub-particle) in the modern period.⁹ Daijisen lists the listing or quotative sense and the post-1990s hedging sense under one head-word, with the shared compositional analysis 「と + か」. The parallel-listing use and the hedging-quotative use are surface specialisations of the same compound.¹

Register tic: トカトカ stacking in writing

Daijirin's example 「かゆいとか痛いなんて言っていられない」shows native stacking of multiple とか across a clausal list. Liu (2011) documents stacking as a hedging strategy that became prominent from the 1990s onward.⁸² The rhythm is natural in speech, but the same rhythm in written prose imports the conversational register Daijisen and the pedagogy reference both flag.¹⁴

Common false friend: とか as an English "etc." in formal writing

Learners often reach for とか to translate "etc." in formal English. In formal Japanese, "etc." is など, not とか. Bunpro contrasts the casual とか〜とか with the more neutral など, and the pedagogy reference confirms that the formal-register substitute for a noun list is や〜など.³⁴ Reaching for とか produces the casual register Daijisen tags as conversational.¹

See also

• The や Particle: Non-Exhaustive Listing "And"
• The と Particle: With, And, Quote
• The など Particle: Etc., Such Things As
• The ～たり〜たりする Form: Listing Actions Non-Exhaustively in Japanese
• The なんて / なんか Particles: Dismissive Listing
• Japanese Particles (助詞): The Eight Categories Explained

References

Footnotes

1. 小学館. 『デジタル大辞泉』, "とか" entry. Accessed via Kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B-582055 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷

2. 劉暁傑. 「ぼかし表現「とか」についての考察」. 『相愛大学人文科学研究所研究年報』第5巻, 2011年, pp. 35–48. ISSN 18817483. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1050845762566248576 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Bunpro. "とか〜とか." JLPT N4 grammar entry. https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B (limitation: language-learning publisher; used for JLPT-level pinning and attachment rules) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

4. 日本語教師のN1et. 「７つの並列助詞一覧 用法の教え方」. https://jn1et.com/howto-heiretu-josi/ (limitation: pedagogy site for Japanese-language teachers; used for the parallel-particle register contrast) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

5. Wasabi. "Parallel Markers: と, や, か, and とか." https://wasabi-jpn.com/magazine/japanese-grammar/parallel-markers-to-ya-and-ka/ (limitation: language-learning publisher; used for the four-marker contrast frame) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. Maggie Sensei. "How to use とか (= toka)." https://maggiesensei.com/2015/02/19/how-to-use-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B-toka/ (limitation: pedagogy blog; used only where its claims line up with the dictionary entries above) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. JLPT Sensei. "JLPT N4 Grammar: とか〜とか (toka~toka) Meaning." https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B-toka-toka-meaning/ (limitation: language-learning publisher; used as a secondary corroboration of attachment patterns and sample sentences) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

8. 三省堂. 『大辞林 第三版』, "とか" entry. Accessed via Weblio 辞書. https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. 小学館. 『精選版 日本国語大辞典』, "とか" entry. Accessed via Kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B-582055 ↩ ↩²