やya“and; or”

や joins nouns into a list of examples: 本やノート means “books, notebooks, and so on.” It is a JLPT N5 particle that tells the listener your list is not complete — there are other items you are not mentioning.

English usually just says “and,” so learners tend to treat や and と as the same word. They are not. と gives the full list; や gives a sample. Choosing the wrong one changes what you are claiming.

と says “these are all of them.” や says “these are some of them.”

What does や mean?

や links two or more nouns and marks them as representative examples of a larger group. The idea “and other things like that” is built in, even if the English translation just says “and.”

• 机の上に本やノートがあります。 — On the desk there are books, notebooks, and other things.
• 京都や奈良に行きたいです。 — I want to go to places like Kyoto and Nara.

Natural English translations include “A, B, and so on,” “things like A and B,” “A and B, among others,” and sometimes “A or B” when the sense is “one of these kinds of things”: 日曜日は本や雑誌を読みます — “On Sundays I read books or magazines.”

How to form や

Put や between nouns. The particle that the whole group needs (が, を, に, は…) goes after the last noun only.

Some examples:

• 野菜や果物を買いました — I bought vegetables, fruit, and so on.
• 犬や猫が好きです — I like dogs, cats, and animals like that.
• 京都や奈良に行きました — I went to Kyoto, Nara, and other places.

You can add など (“etc.”) after the last noun to make the “and so on” explicit: 財布やかぎなど. や and など often appear together; など is optional but common.

や connects nouns only. For verbs you need a different pattern (〜たり〜たりする), and for adjectives you use the te-form (安くて、おいしい).

When is や used?

• Shopping and food: listing some of what you bought or ate without naming everything.
• Hobbies and likes: 映画や音楽が好きです — I like things like movies and music.
• Travel: listing a few places you visited or want to visit.
• Describing a room or bag: what is in it, when you don’t want to list every object.

や is neutral: it works in polite and casual speech and in writing. In casual conversation you will also hear とか, which does a similar job with a more relaxed feel.

や example sentences

In example 3, 掃除 and 洗濯 are nouns (“cleaning,” “laundry”), which is why や can join them. Their verb versions 掃除する and 洗濯する could not be joined with や.

Nuance of や

や signals that you are picking examples from a bigger set. The listener understands there may be other items of the same kind. That makes や vague on purpose — handy when the full list doesn’t matter or you don’t remember it.

Because of that built-in vagueness, や sounds wrong when the list is obviously complete: two items you are holding, the members of a small family, the exact dishes you ordered. In those cases, と is correct.

💡 Quick check: could you add “and so on” to your English sentence without lying? If yes, や works. If the list is exact, use と.

や vs と

Both join nouns and both translate as “and,” but they make different claims about the list.

When you order food, list your family, or name exactly what is in front of you, use と. When you give a taste of a longer list, use や.

Common mistakes with や

Is や on the JLPT?

If a reading question asks “What did the person buy?” and the text says パンや牛乳を買いました, the answer choice may include a third item. Remember that や allows for more.

Practice questions for や

Learning path for や

Related grammar to review next

• と — the complete-list “and,” the particle や is most often confused with.
• など — “etc.,” which often follows the last noun in a や list.
• 〜たり〜たりする — lists example actions, which や cannot do.
• か～か — use this when you really mean “A or B” as a choice, not a set of examples.

Learn や with Hane

Hane quizzes you on や and と with real shopping and ordering scenes, so you pick the right “and” for complete and partial lists. Practise N5 particles in Hane.