Breakdown of syuumatu ni tomodati to depaato de huku wo mitari, kafe de hanasitarisita.
Questions & Answers about syuumatu ni tomodati to depaato de huku wo mitari, kafe de hanasitarisita.
In Japanese, the subject is often omitted when it is obvious from context.
Here, the implied subject is usually 私 (I) or sometimes 私たち (we), depending on the situation. The sentence is understood as:
- “(I) did things like look at clothes with my friend at the department store and talk at a café (on the weekend).”
Because the speaker is talking about their own weekend activities, Japanese does not need to say 私 explicitly. This is very natural and common in everyday speech and writing.
週末に marks the time when something happens.
- に after a time word (e.g. 週末に, 3時に, 月曜日に) indicates a specific point or period in time:
- 週末に: on/over the weekend
- 3時に: at 3 o’clock
You can say 週末は instead, but the nuance changes slightly:
- 週末に友達とデパートで服を見たり…
→ Focus on when you did these activities (on the weekend). - 週末は友達とデパートで服を見たり…
→ Contrastive/topic nuance: “As for weekends, I (usually) do things like…”, or “This weekend, (at least) I did things like…”.
Both are grammatically correct.
In a simple description of what you did on the weekend, 週末に is very natural.
〜たり、〜たりする/した is a pattern used to:
- list multiple actions or states as examples, and
- imply that there are other similar things not listed.
Form:
- Verb (plain past) + り
- 見た → 見たり
- 話した → 話したり
- Then finish with する (non-past) or した (past):
- 見たり、話したりする
- 見たり、話したりした
Meaning nuance:
- 見たり、話したりした
→ “I did things like look and talk (among other things).” - 見て、話した
→ Just a simple chain: “I looked and (then) talked.”
It sounds more like a straightforward list of everything you did, without the “among other things” nuance.
So 〜たり〜たりする feels like:
“(for example) I did A, B, and so on.”
Grammatically, 〜たり by itself is not a complete predicate; it’s part of the set expression 〜たり〜たりする.
Structure:
- 服を見たり、カフェで話したり する。
→ Non-past: “(I) do things like look at clothes and talk at a café.” - 服を見たり、カフェで話したり した。
→ Past: “(I) did things like look at clothes and talk at a café.”
So:
- The verbs before たり (見たり, 話したり) are in the “たり form”, not independent past tense predicates.
- する / した at the end is the main verb that carries the tense.
If you omit した, the sentence is incomplete:
- ✕ 服を見たり、カフェで話したり。 (feels cut off, like “I did things like look at clothes and talk at a cafe, and…?”)
In this sentence, 友達と means “with my friend(s)”.
Particle と has several uses; two important ones:
As “and” (for listing nouns):
- 猫と犬が好きです。
→ “I like cats and dogs.”
- 猫と犬が好きです。
As “with” (companion marker):
- 友達と行く。
→ “I go with my friend.”
- 友達と行く。
Here, 友達とデパートで服を見たり… clearly uses と as the companion marker.
So the meaning is: “I did these things with a friend.”
Normally, in a sentence like this, 友達と is understood to apply to both actions:
- 週末に
→ on the weekend - 友達と
→ with a friend (this logically carries through the whole たり-series) - デパートで服を見たり、
- カフェで話したりした。
So the natural interpretation is:
- “On the weekend, I (together) with a friend did things like look at clothes at a department store and talk at a café.”
If the speaker wanted to say that only one of the actions was with a friend, they would usually repeat or move 友達と to make it clear, e.g.:
- 週末にデパートで服を見たり、友達とカフェで話したりした。
→ Only the café talk is explicitly “with a friend.”
で here marks the place where an action occurs.
- デパートで服を見たり
→ “do things like look at clothes at the department store” - カフェで話したりした
→ “do things like talk at a café”
Compare:
- に often marks a destination or point in time:
- デパートに行く → “go to the department store”
- 週末に行く → “go on the weekend”
- で marks the location where something happens:
- デパートで買い物する → “do shopping at the department store”
- カフェで勉強する → “study at a café”
So デパートで and カフェで tell you where those activities took place.
Yes, 服を見に行く / 服を見たりする commonly implies browsing / window shopping, not necessarily buying.
- 服を見に行く
→ “go (out) to look at clothes” (maybe try them on, check styles/prices) - 服を買いに行く
→ “go to buy clothes” (stronger implication that you intend to purchase)
So in this sentence, 服を見たり suggests:
- “We spent time looking at clothes” (possibly trying on or just browsing),
- Without saying clearly whether they bought anything.
It’s a very natural, everyday expression for “going shopping (looking around) at a clothing section/store.”
Yes, you can change the order:
- デパートで服を見たり、カフェで話したりした。
- カフェで話したり、デパートで服を見たりした。
Both are grammatically correct.
The change mainly affects:
Impression of order in time
- The listener may assume the actions happened roughly in the order mentioned, although it’s not strict.
What feels more emphasized or important
- The first item sometimes feels like the more central or natural activity in that context.
But in everyday conversation, swapping them like that is perfectly fine and doesn’t drastically change the meaning.
You keep the たり parts the same and change the final verb した to しました:
- 週末に友達とデパートで服を見たり、カフェで話したりしました。
This is polite past tense and would be natural when speaking to:
- a teacher,
- a boss,
- someone you don’t know well,
- or in a more formal setting.
Structure:
- Verb(plain past) + り, Verb(plain past) + り + します / しました
- 見たり、話したりします。 (polite non-past)
- 見たり、話したりしました。 (polite past)
Yes, you can say:
- 週末に友達とデパートで服を見て、カフェで話した。
This is grammatically fine and natural.
The difference is in nuance:
〜て、〜た
- Simple sequence:
- “(I) looked at clothes at the department store and (then) talked at a café.”
- Sounds more like these are the main, complete actions I did.
- Simple sequence:
〜たり、〜たりした
- List of examples, implies there were other similar activities:
- “(I) did things like look at clothes at the department store and talk at a café (and so on).”
- Feels a bit more soft / non-exhaustive.
- List of examples, implies there were other similar activities:
So:
- Use 〜て〜た if you just want to state, straightforwardly, what happened.
- Use 〜たり〜たりした if you want to say “I did this and that kind of thing,” without claiming to list everything.