Grammar › Time › 〜たり〜たり
〜たり〜たり
"Doing things like A and B." A loose, open-ended list — you name a couple of examples and leave the door open to more.
The short version
Take the past (た) form of each verb and add り: 食べた → 食べたり. List two (sometimes more), then close the whole thing with する. It means "do things like A and B (among others)" — the examples are not exhaustive.
食べたり飲んだりする — eat and drink and such
する → したり ／ 来る → 来たり — built on the past base
Listing a few things you do
The everyday use: give a taste of your activities without claiming it's the full list.
料理をしたり、ジムで運動したり、
Cooking, working out at the gym, that kind of thing… (representative examples)
旅行に行ったり、ハイキングをしたりします。
I do things like travel and go hiking. (closed off with します)
友達が家に来たり、僕が友達の家に行ったり。
Friends come over, I go to friends' places, and so on. (two sides of the same kind of thing)
Back-and-forth actions
Because it's about "this, that, and the like", 〜たり〜たり also paints alternation — going one way then the other, over and over.
登ったり降りたり、登ったり降りたり。
Up and down, up and down. (alternating motion)
Watch out
Built on the past form, closed with する. The た in たり is the same た as past tense — 読む→読んだり, する→したり, 来る→来たり. Don't forget the final する (or します), which carries the real tense and politeness of the sentence.
🗣 たり is not てform. A て-form chain (食べて、飲んで) lists actions in a fixed, complete order. たり lists a few examples in no particular order, implying "…and other things too". Reach for たり when the list is illustrative, not exhaustive.
Next: 〜たことがある — have done → · まえに・てから → · All grammar
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