～たり
doing things like A and B
～たり lists actions as representative examples rather than a complete report. Saying 食べたり飲んだりする means you ate, drank, and did other things too. The list is just a sample.
In English it corresponds to “do things like A and B” or “..., among other things”.
1. ～たり～たりする: examples from a longer list
The classic pattern chains two (or more) ～たり verbs and closes the list with する.
昨日のパーティーでは、食べたり飲んだりしました。
“At yesterday's party we did things like eat and drink.”
- 昨日（きのう）= yesterday
- の = linking particle (of)
- パーティー = party
- で = at (place of action)
- は = topic marker
- 食べたり（たべたり）= ate (for example)
- 飲んだり（のんだり）= drank (for example)
- しました = did (polite past)
2. A single ～たりする: one representative example
One ～たり on its own still signals “this is just an example”. Other similar activities are implied.
休みの日は映画を見たりする。
“On my days off I do things like watch movies.”
- 休み（やすみ）= day off, rest
- の = linking particle (of)
- 日（ひ）= day
- は = topic marker
- 映画（えいが）= movie
- を = object marker
- 見たり（みたり）= watch (among other things)
- する = do
～たり vs the て-form
The て-form lists actions in order and implies that is the whole story: 食べて、飲んだ = “we ate and then drank”. ～たり gives unordered examples and implies “among other things”. The actions did not necessarily happen in that sequence, and the list is not complete.
How to form it
Past-tense form + り, the sound changes are exactly the same as for た. The list is usually closed off with する, which carries the tense and politeness.
- 読む（よむ）= to read → 読んだり（よんだり）= reading (for example)
- 書く（かく）= to write → 書いたり（かいたり）= writing (for example)
- 食べる（たべる）= to eat → 食べたり（たべたり）= eating (for example)
- する = to do → したり = doing (for example)
- 来る（くる）= to come → 来たり（きたり）= coming (for example)
Key idea
～たり pulls a sample out of a longer list. Whenever you would say “..., among other things” in English, that trailing “among other things” is what ～たり adds.
Other N5 grammar
Updated .