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JLPT N2Hearsay & Conjecture

～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.

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A short lesson: the pattern, its sentence anatomy, a quick quiz and a sentence to build.

Pro lessonUNIT 38 · HEARSAY & CONJECTURE

Structure · 形

[Plain form] + とか (sentence-final, vague report)

Examples · 例文

  • 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.

Usage notes · 注意

  • 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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