～とか — I Heard Something Like
At the end of a sentence, とか reports information vaguely and with uncertainty, as in 'I heard something like...'. It softens a claim by signaling the speaker isn't fully sure of the details. This is distinct from the listing use of とか learned earlier.
Structure
[Plain form] + とか (sentence-final, vague report)
Examples
田中さん、来月結婚するとか。
Tanaka-san, raigetsu kekkon suru toka.
I heard Tanaka is getting married next month or something.
結婚する + とか reports secondhand news with uncertainty.
あの店、もう閉店したとか聞いたよ。
Ano mise, mou heiten shita toka kiita yo.
I heard something like that shop has already closed down.
閉店した + とか + 聞いた softens the report as hearsay.
彼は今、海外にいるとか。
Kare wa ima, kaigai ni iru toka.
Apparently he's overseas right now, or so I heard.
いる + とか ends the sentence, marking the info as vague hearsay.
• Register: conversational; conveys the speaker's uncertainty about details. • Often paired with 聞いた or trails off as a soft sentence ending. • Different from listing とか (AとかBとか) meaning 'things like A and B'.
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ～とか is tested against.
vs そうだ (hearsay)
そうだ reports information the speaker treats as reliable, while とか adds vagueness and mild uncertainty about the details.
vs らしい
らしい reports based on some basis/evidence, whereas sentence-final とか is more casual and noncommittal about the source.
More hearsay & conjecture
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