Learn To Use “to” and “ya” Particles to State the Presence of Objects in Japanese

 

In a previous post, I touch on using the と particle to show express what you are thinking. In today’s post, you will learn another usage for と particle. That is to state the presence of objects. It is similar to using the “and” English. や is also another useful particle. Let’s find out.

Using　と

テブル　の　うえ　に、　かみ　と ペン　と えんぴつ　が　あります.

On the table top, there is paper, pen and pencil.

Using や

テブル　の　うえ　に、　かみ　や ペン　や えんぴつ　が　あります.

On the table top, there is paper, pen, pencil…etc

Words to learn

テブル - table

うえ、上 - top

かみ、紙 - paper

ぺん - pen

えんぴつ、鉛筆 - pencil

Explanation

To use と correctly, just be sure that you are seeing a fix number of things. As for や, it works the similar way to と, there is only one difference you have to take note. や is only use when there are quite a number of things that you see and probably won’t be able to state them all out. That is why in the English translation, you see that it ends with etc. Short post for today though, but more と usage coming up.

Learning Japanese language is my passion.:)