とか is the relaxed, conversational way to say "…and stuff," "like… and…," "things such as." It's the casual cousin of the neutral-to-formal や…など: where a résumé writes 読書や映画鑑賞など, a friend says 読書とか映画とか. But とか has grown well past simple listing. In modern speech — especially younger speech — it has become an all-purpose hedge, softening quotes, blurring times, and taking the sharp edge off almost any statement, much the way English "like" does. This page covers both the tidy listing use and the live, spreading vagueness use.
The core: listing representative examples
Join nouns with とか and you offer them as examples of a larger category — "these, and others of the kind." You can repeat とか after each item, or use it once and let it stand for the set.
週末は映画とか見る。
shūmatsu wa eiga toka miru
On weekends I watch movies and stuff.
スーパーでりんごとかバナナとか買ってきて。
sūpā de ringo toka banana toka katte kite
Grab some apples and bananas and stuff at the store.
休みの日は掃除とか洗濯とかで終わっちゃう。
yasumi no hi wa sōji toka sentaku toka de owacchau
My days off just get eaten up by cleaning, laundry, and so on.
A single とか after one noun already implies "…or the like," so you don't need two items to use it. 映画とか見る means "I watch movies and stuff," not "movies or something specific."
Unlike や, とか also joins clauses
Here's a real capability difference. や strictly connects nouns; とか can also list whole clauses/actions — verbs in their plain form, each tagged with とか.
週末は映画を見るとか、買い物するとか、いろいろしたい。
shūmatsu wa eiga o miru toka, kaimono suru toka, iroiro shitai
This weekend I want to do all sorts of things — watch a movie, go shopping, that kind of thing.
「無理」とか言わないで、まずやってみようよ。
muri toka iwanaide, mazu yatte miyō yo
Don't go saying stuff like 'it's impossible' — just try it first.
So for "do things like watch movies and go shopping," とか works where や would be ungrammatical. This overlaps with the reason-lister し and the たり…たり form, but とか keeps the casual "…and stuff" flavor.
The hedging quote: 〜とか言ってた
Attach とか to a reported statement and it softens the quotation — "said something like…," without committing to the exact words. It's a distancing, non-committal report.
田中さん、疲れたとか言ってたよ。
Tanaka-san, tsukareta toka itteta yo
Tanaka said something like she was tired.
なんか用事があるとか言って、先に帰った。
nanka yōji ga aru toka itte, saki ni kaetta
He said something about having errands and left early.
The nuance is "roughly this, don't hold me to the wording." That's useful for gossip, secondhand info, and polite vagueness — but be aware it also plants faint doubt, which you don't always want (see the mistakes below).
Vague approximation and the modern all-purpose hedge
Stick とか onto a time or number and it goes fuzzy — "around, or so."
七時とかに集合でいい？
shichiji toka ni shūgō de ii?
Is meeting around seven or so okay?
From there, younger speakers have generalized とか into a pure softener that can land on almost anything — a noun, a phrase, even an adjective — with no listing at all. It's the closest Japanese equivalent of the English filler "like."
明日とか暇？
ashita toka hima?
Are you, like, free tomorrow?
ちょっと恥ずかしいとか思っちゃった。
chotto hazukashii toka omocchatta
I kind of, like, felt embarrassed.
カラオケとか行く？
karaoke toka iku?
Wanna go do karaoke or something?
In 明日とか暇？ there's no real list — とか just cushions the question, making it feel offhand and low-pressure ("no big deal if not"). This is a genuine, still-spreading feature of casual Japanese, and it maps almost perfectly onto discourse "like." (informal; especially younger speakers)
Where とか sits: や / など / し
| Connector | Joins | Register |
|---|---|---|
| と | nouns (complete list) | neutral |
| や | nouns (open list) | neutral |
| など | caps a noun list ("etc.") | neutral → formal |
| とか | nouns and clauses (open, examples) + hedge | casual |
| し | predicates (reasons) | neutral |
The one-line takeaway: for the same open, "these-are-examples" meaning, や…など is the polished form and とか is the spoken form. とか's extras — clause-listing and all-purpose hedging — are its own.
Register warning
とか belongs to conversation. In formal writing, business email, or keigo, it sounds careless — swap in や…など. Overusing とか as a filler ("明日とか、七時とか、行けたら行くとか") reads as vague and immature in any setting where precision is expected.
Common mistakes
❌ 会議では本とか雑誌とかを配布しました。
kaigi de wa hon toka zasshi toka o haifu shimashita
Too casual for a report — とか clashes with formal register; use や…など.
✅ 会議では本や雑誌などを配布しました。
kaigi de wa hon ya zasshi nado o haifu shimashita
At the meeting we handed out books, magazines, and so on.
❌ 週末は映画を見るや本を読む。
shūmatsu wa eiga o miru ya hon o yomu
Incorrect — や joins nouns only; to list actions casually, use とか.
✅ 週末は映画を見るとか本を読むとかする。
shūmatsu wa eiga o miru toka hon o yomu toka suru
On weekends I do things like watch movies and read books.
❌ 田中さんは「行く」とか言った。
Tanaka-san wa iku toka itta
Wrong if he said it clearly — とか casts doubt on the wording you don't intend; use と for a precise quote.
✅ 田中さんは「行く」と言った。
Tanaka-san wa iku to itta
Tanaka said, 'I'll go.'
❌ 映画を見ますとか本を読みますとか。
eiga o mimasu toka hon o yomimasu toka
Register clash — casual とか doesn't ride on the polite ます-form; use plain forms.
✅ 映画を見るとか本を読むとか。
eiga o miru toka hon o yomu toka
Things like watching movies and reading books.
The pattern: とか is a casual tool with wide reach. Its casualness means keep it out of writing and keigo (や…など instead); its reach means it can list clauses (where や can't) and hedge quotes and times (where a bare と would be too precise). Match the register to the setting and let とか do the softening work it's built for.
Key takeaways
- とか lists casual, representative examples — "movies and stuff" — and, unlike や, can join clauses as well as nouns.
- It hedges: 〜とか言ってた ("said something like…"), 七時とか ("around seven"), and increasingly softens any statement (明日とか暇？) like English "like."
- Register: casual only. The neutral/formal equivalent is や…など; keep とか out of writing and keigo.
- Precise quote → と; noun list (neutral) → や; reasons → し; the casual "…and stuff" → とか.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- や: 'And' (Partial List) and などN4 — How や joins nouns into a deliberately incomplete list — 'X and Y, among others' — how it differs from the exhaustive と, and why it so often pairs with など ('etc.').
- など / なんか / なんて: Etc. and BelittlingN3 — How など means 'etc.' and downplays (私などまだまだ), how casual なんか/なんて add dismissive or emotive nuance, and why the same 'a mere example' logic powers both humble self-lowering (私なんか) and scorn (お前なんか).
- Casual Plain Speech: Features & FeelN4 — Casual Japanese (タメ口) is not polite Japanese with the ます chopped off — it is its own system of omission, contraction, and particle color, and speaking it well is an active skill that signals closeness.
- し: Listing Reasons and Adding UpN4 — How し stacks co-existing facts and reasons toward a conclusion (安いし、おいしいし…), why even a single し implies 'and there's more,' and how it differs from から/ので and from the noun-listers や/とか.