Creating Partial Lists (や, など, とか)

We know we can connect nouns with the と particle like so:

野菜やさいと　魚さかなと　牛乳ぎゅうにゅうと　水みず。

Vegetables and fish and milk and water.

But the repeated use of と becomes cumbersome when we need to enumerate a long list. We want to say “A, B, C, and so on”. In this case, we use the following structure with the particles や and など:

【A】や【B】など

A, B, etc.

テレビや　冷蔵庫れいぞうこなどを　買かいます。

I will buy a television, a fridge, and so on.

Contrast this to the sentence which only uses と.

テレビと　冷蔵庫れいぞうこを　買かいます。

I will buy a television and a fridge.

数学すうがくや　科学かがくなど(を)　勉強べんきょうします。

I will study mathematics and science, etc.

The object を is very often omitted when など is used.

ワインや　ウイスキーなどの　違ちがいが　わかりません。

I don’t understand the difference between wines and whiskies.

It is also worth noting that など does not strictly require や. You can attach it directly to a single noun to imply “things like” that item.

英語えいごなどを　勉強べんきょうします。

I study English, among other things.

とか is the casual way of saying the above. While you will hear や and など in formal or polite settings (like from shop staff or in business meetings), you will rarely hear them in casual conversation with friends. Instead, you will hear とか all the time. What makes とか particularly versatile is that it can be added to just about anything (や can only be used with nouns).

牛乳ぎゅうにゅうとか　パンとか　買かう。

I’ll buy milk and bread and other things.

彼女かのじょは「うーん」とか「えーと」とか　言いう。

She was umming and arring.

岩崎いわさきとか　何なんとか　言いう人。

A person called Iwasaki or something.