たり~たりする - Grammar Discussion

things like ~ and ~

Structure

  • Verb[]・り + Verb[]・り・する

[Used when listing activities or attributes of something]

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Can someone help me understand why it’s not acceptable to answer:
したらしました

Is there some sort of rule that with たり, verbs are conjugated only in the casual form?

Thanks. :slight_smile:

@chrischriskurisu It looks like you might have typed した (shitara) instead of した (shitari) in your answer. Each review question will either specify that you need the casual form or the polite form (and throw a warning/hint if you do not) or accept both casual and polite answers. Please let us know if this is not the case for you. Cheers!

Indeed, that’s the case. How embarrassing!!!
Thank you for your reply.

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Question- in the example sentence
毎日、漢字を書いたり 、文法を勉強_____ 。
Since 毎日 is used, wouldn’t the final 〜たりする be したりしています to reflect the habitual activity?

〜たりします is listed as the correct answer.

Thanks!

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@tbartst Hey! While しています can work, like in English, it is more natural to use the Japanese non-past tense here. That being said, we were not catching answers that use ている or しています. I have updated the answers that throw hints/warnings to do so. Cheers!

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Thanks a lot!

The summary mentions る¹ and る² - should the second one be be る⁵? That’s what the structure legend mentions.

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@Nol
Hey and welcome on the community forums! :partying_face:

Yes. you are right, I have fixed the error!
Thank you for the feedback and sorry for the inconvenience.! :bowing_man:

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Is たり only used for two actions? Or could it used to express a list of actions?

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You can use it for more than two actions.

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@melvargas
Like @gyroninja says, you can use it for as many actions (well not too many of course!) as you want. Remember that by itself, the たり implies that there are other unmentioned actions/states too.

Also, if the last action is the するVerb, it is often the case that したりする is contracted to する.

本を読んだり勉強したりした→本を読んだり勉強した
I read books and studied, among others.

Cheers!

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I have a question.
The question is
あめが___, やんだりする ね。[る]
It keeps doing things like raining and stopping, doesn’t it.

Fair question, I answered たり. Which is incomplete
Correct answer is
ふったり
My question is where does the ふっ come from?

Are you asking why it’s 降ったりinstead of 降たり?

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No I actually just forgot that the stuff in [ x x x ] tells you what you’re supposed to use for the answer. I feel very silly right now. But uhh…ya. My fault guys

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Asking these things is how you learn and push your brain more and more, ask all the ‘dumb’ questions you want!

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There are a bunch of examples like this (bolding mine):

今日は、勉強たり、練習たりする。

まだ食べたり、飲んだりています。

Where does the “し” come from?

EDIT: Whoops! I missed that the verbs need to be in their past tense (た) form before adding -たり to the end. I think that answers that question…

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