〜と — And; With (Accompaniment)

japanesegrammarn5particles

Properties

Property Value
Level JLPT N5
Part of speech Particle
Function Exhaustive listing; Accompaniment

Meaning

と has two core uses at the N5 level:

  1. Exhaustive listing of nouns — AとBとC means "A, B, and C" and implies the list is complete. Nothing else is included beyond what is stated.
  2. Accompaniment — 〜と or 〜と一緒に means "together with ~", indicating the person or thing you are with when doing an action.

Note: The quotation use of と (e.g., と思う "I think that…", と言う "say that…") is covered at the N4 level and is not discussed here.

Structure

1. Exhaustive listing

Noun A + と + Noun B (+ と + Noun C …)
  • All items in the group are named explicitly.
  • Implies no additional items exist (or are relevant).

2. Accompaniment

Noun (person/thing) + と + Verb
Noun (person/thing) + と一緒に + Verb
  • The noun before と is the companion or co-participant in the action.

Examples

  1. りんごとバナナとぶどうを買いました。 Ringo to banana to budō o kaimashita. I bought apples, bananas, and grapes. (those three, and nothing else)

  2. つくえの上に本とペンがあります。 Tsukue no ue ni hon to pen ga arimasu. There is a book and a pen on the desk.

  3. わたしは友だちと学校に行きます。 Watashi wa tomodachi to gakkō ni ikimasu. I go to school with my friend.

  4. 母と一緒に料理をしました。 Haha to issho ni ryōri o shimashita. I cooked together with my mother.

  5. 田中さんと山田さんはクラスメートです。 Tanaka-san to Yamada-san wa kurasu-mēto desu. Tanaka and Yamada are classmates.

と vs. や — Exhaustive vs. Non-exhaustive Listing

Particle Implication Example
と Complete list — only these items 本と雑誌を読む (I read a book and a magazine — just those two)
や Partial list — among other things 本や雑誌を読む (I read books, magazines, and so on)

Use と when you want to be precise and list everything. Use や when the list is representative but not exhaustive.

Common Mistakes

  • Using と for a partial list. If you say ねこといぬがいます, you imply there are exactly a cat and a dog, nothing else. If there are other animals too, use や instead.
  • Confusing accompaniment と with the subject marker が. と marks who you do the action with, not who performs it. わたしは友だちと行く means "I go with my friend", not "my friend and I both go" (though the meaning is similar, the grammatical roles differ).
  • Omitting と in a list of three or more nouns. In Japanese, と should appear after each noun: AとBとC, not AとB、C.
  • Using と一緒に with inanimate objects in all contexts. と alone is natural for objects (かさと本を持つ); と一緒に is most natural when the companion is a person or animal.