We’ve previously looked at connecting clauses with the て-form, for example: 手teを洗araって食taべてください。 The て-form implies that the things mentioned are the only things involved.

If you want to imply that there are other things as well, we can use the suffix 〜たり. It is constructed in the same way as the て-form, so the only thing we need to do is replace 〜て with 〜たり.

Plain form	食taべる	飲noむ	する	行iく
て-form	食taべて	飲noんで	して	行iって
たり-form	食taべたり	飲noんだり	したり	行iったり

A verb in the たり-form is used in combination with the verb する to make sentences.

We can change the tense of the sentence by changing the tense of the する verb.

〜たり can also be used with nouns and adjectives in the following ways:

Verbs	Verb + たり	する
Nouns	Noun + だったり	です・だ
い-adjectives	い-adjective + いかったり	です・だ
な-adjectives	な-adjective + だったり	です・だ

See the table below for some examples of using 〜たり with nouns and adjectives.

Breakdown of kare no shumi wa dokusho dattari, ryouri dattari desu.