と (to): The And / With Particle

Level: N5. (Note: the JLPT publishes no official grammar list; the level shown is the common textbook convention.) The particle と (to) is small but busy: it joins nouns like “and”, marks the person you are “with”, and closes a quotation. Learn the three jobs together and you will recognise と (to) everywhere.

The rule

A particle is a short word that marks the role of the word before it. と (to) has three core jobs for a beginner.

First, “and” between nouns. と (to) joins two or more nouns into a complete list — you are naming everything, nothing left out: 犬と猫 (inu to neko), “a dog and a cat”. If you only want to give examples from a longer list, Japanese uses や (ya) instead.

Second, “with” a companion. When you do something together with someone, that person is marked with と (to): 友達と (tomodachi to), “with a friend”. Unlike English, と (to) comes after the person, not before.

Third, marking a quotation. と (to) closes off what was said or thought, before a verb like 言う (iu, “to say”) or 思う (omou, “to think”): 面白いと思う (omoshiroi to omou), “I think it is interesting”.

The three uses of と (to)

For a quote, the quoted part stays in plain (dictionary) form, even when the rest of the sentence is polite. Nouns and na-adjectives add だ (da) before と (to): 学生だと言った (gakusei da to itta), “said he is a student”.

Example sentences

Each sentence was written for this lesson, with romaji.

Common mistakes

• ❌ りんごやバナナを食べます (ringo ya banana o tabemasu) for “exactly an apple and a banana” → ✅ りんごとバナナを食べます (ringo to banana o tabemasu). や (ya) means “such things as”, so it adds “and others”; と (to) names the complete list.
• ❌ と友達行きます (to tomodachi ikimasu) → ✅ 友達と行きます (tomodachi to ikimasu). と (to) comes after the person, not before.
• ❌ 学生と言いました (gakusei to iimashita) → ✅ 学生だと言いました (gakusei da to iimashita). A noun before quotation と (to) needs だ (da).
• ❌ 面白いですと思います (omoshiroi desu to omoimasu) → ✅ 面白いと思います (omoshiroi to omoimasu). The quoted part uses plain form; drop です (desu) before と (to).

A short conversation

— 週末は何をしましたか。 (Shūmatsu wa nani o shimashita ka.) — “What did you do at the weekend?” — 友達と映画を見ました。 (Tomodachi to eiga o mimashita.) — “I watched a movie with a friend.” — いいですね。面白かったですか。 (Ii desu ne. Omoshirokatta desu ka.) — “Nice. Was it interesting?” — はい、とても面白かったと思います。 (Hai, totemo omoshirokatta to omoimasu.) — “Yes, I think it was very interesting.”

Usage notes

• The last と (to) is dropped. When listing with と (to), the particle after the final noun is normally left out: 犬と猫 (inu to neko), not 犬と猫と (inu to neko to).
• と (to) for “with” takes 一緒に (issho ni) for warmth. 友達と行く (tomodachi to iku) already means “go with a friend”; adding 一緒に (issho ni) — 友達と一緒に行く (tomodachi to issho ni iku) — stresses the togetherness.
• Quoted content stays plain. Before quotation と (to), use the plain form: verbs as 行く (iku), i-adjectives as 面白い (omoshiroi), and nouns/na-adjectives with だ (da), as in 学生だ (gakusei da).
• って (tte) replaces と (to) in casual speech. In conversation, quotation と (to) is often replaced by って (tte): 行くって言った (iku tte itta) for “said he’d go”. Keep と (to) in writing and polite speech.

Compared with…

• も (mo) means “also / too” and replaces が (ga) or を (o) rather than listing: 私も行きます (watashi mo ikimasu), “I will go too”. Where と (to) joins items, も (mo) adds the current item to something already mentioned. See the も (mo) particle lesson.
• Quotation と (to) vs the listing と (to) are the same particle doing different jobs. The quotation use always sits before a verb of saying or thinking such as 言う (iu) or 思う (omou); the listing use sits between nouns. See the と (to) for quotation lesson.

Practice

Quick recap before the quiz.

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

Next

• Learn the “also / too” particle: も (mo)
• Go deeper on quoting: と (to) for quotation
• Back to the Japanese grammar section
• New here? Start with Start Learning Japanese Here