～やら～やら: (Negative) this and that

Introduction

Welcome to the very first grammar lesson of the N2 region!

As you will find to be the case for 90% of the lessons in this region, today's grammar is a new version of grammar you mostly already know. But keep your eyes peeled because it's the differences, rather than the similarities, that you'll want to really pay attention to.

Anyway, it's a bit sandy out there in the desert, so if you don't mind taking off your shoes so that you don't track sand all over the classroom.... Aaand you just walked right in. Okay!

～やら～やら: This, that, and the other thing I'm not mentioning

構成こうせい

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  Dictionary form verb/い-adjectiveやら (+ を・で・が)

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  Nounやら (+ を・で・が)

  Example:
  → 昼ひるごはんはパンやら、ピザやら、炭水化物たんすいかぶつが多おおいものばかりです。
  "All (they) eat for lunch are things with lots of carbs, like bread and pizza.”

Since you're at the N2 level now, here's a little Japanese overview of this grammar point!

日本語にほんご文法ぶんぽう説明せつめい

・いくつかあるが、その中なかの1つ2つを例れいとして挙あげる時ときに使つかう。

・大変たいへん、不満ふまん、複雑ふくざつなどの感情かんじょうのことに対たいして使つかわれることが多おおい。（中立的ちゅうりつてきなこともある。）

・話はなし言葉ことばで使つかわれることが多おおい。

Wow! Great job reading all of that! You... did read it all, right?

Well, just in case you skipped some of it because you're short on time, I'll give you the usual English explanation as well...

Overview

Just like the similar grammar listed below, ～やら～やら is all about creating incomplete lists. In other words, lists where we're simply providing a sample of the full thing. However, there are a few key points that set ～やら～やら apart from its grammatical cousins.

For one thing, ～やら～やら is most commonly used when listing things that are associated with a negative emotion of some kind. For instance, difficulty, displeasure, and complication. What's more, ～やら～やら can be used with verbs, adjectives, and nouns, while the other similar grammar you've learned so far is more limited. But let's save the details for when we get to the proper compare and contrast section at the end of the lesson.

Similar to

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  ～とか～とか (We're working on adding this to the Depths of Devotion, but for now, think of it as a simple listing particle)

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  ～たり～たり(Elementary #73)

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  ～や～など (Elementary #71)

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  ～し～し (Apprentice #110)

Politeness

In terms of usage, ～やら～やら is most commonly used in casual/polite scenarios and not so much in formal ones. So if you're giving a fancy speech, or speaking in a situation that requires 尊敬語そんけいご・謙譲語けんじょうご, best avoid the やらs. Otherwise, you might be accused of grammatical やらssment.

例文れいぶん（動詞どうし）

We'll start with some examples of 「(verb)やら(verb)やら」!

Don't forget that hitting their foot on a desk and losing their phone are only two examples of everything that went into ruining the speaker's day. It's possible that many more (unfortunate) things happened, but it's also possible that the speaker is simply using やら to imply that more happened (even if nothing really did), just to increase the "bad day" sentiment.

Also note that, in general, we should make sure that やら is attaching to things of the same "category". Example 1.1 gets a bit of a free pass in that, as it has a very broad "category": negative things that happened to the speaker.

Example 1.1 also demonstrates how やら is commonly used to list things that the speaker views negatively, but this isn't always the case. We can use やら in a neutral context as well, to simply describe someone/something. Like so:

Again, やら implies that what this person does when they're drunk is not necessarily limited to crying or laughing. The point is that they're a bit all over the place.

Another thing to note is the particle usage following the second installment of やら! Since やら itself is a particle, it can attach to other particles when necessary, with the most common ones being を and で. In this case, it's as if we're simply inserting やら into the 「～(verb)で忙いそがしい」 pattern, wherein で tells us the "means by which one is busy".

For example:

「仕事しごとで忙いそがしい」 "Busy with work" ＋やら =

「趣味しゅみやら仕事しごとやらで忙いそがしい」
"Busy with things like work and hobbies".

Notice how even for past actions, やら needs to attach to dictionary form

例文れいぶん（い形容詞けいようし）

Let's continue with some い-adjective examples. These should also be in their dictionary form to attach to やら!

Again, ～やら～やら is very commonly used in this sort of negative context. Sorry about your friend!

You will also occasionally see the の particle come between an い-adjective and やら, like so:

の is added when the speaker wants to indicate that they don't know which option is correct; in this case, to indicate that they really didn't know how they were supposed to feel.

例文れいぶん（名詞めいし）

Last up are the nouns.

3.3 is an example of a neutral ～やら～やら statement, but let's take a look at a not-so-neutral example:

You may hear some people use ～やら～やら in this way, but it's technically not correct since we shouldn't use やら in strictly positive scenarios.

Instead, you could say:

Notice also that we're able to use the を from 「手紙てがみをたくさんもらって」 and use it in direct conjunction with やら. Now that's some N2 level skill!

Compare and contrast with similar grammar

It's time for everyone's favorite section: compare and contrast! All of the following grammar are somewhat similar to ～やら～やら in terms of indicating an incomplete list, but they are also different in the following ways:

～とか～とか

Compared to ～やら～やら, ～とか～とか is a very simple listing grammar point that includes no emotional nuance. In this way, とか is more versatile, as we don't need to worry about whether our sentence is negative, neutral, or positive.

4.1a

誕生日たんじょうびに服ふくとか、ゲームとか、色々いろいろもらってうれしかった！

I was glad to receive things like clothes, games, and other stuff for my birthday!

4.1b

誕生日たんじょうびに服ふくやら、ゲームやら、色々いろいろもらってうれしかった！❌

〜たり〜たり

Just like with とか, ～たり～たり has no negative/neutral requirements and can be used more freely. ～たり～たり can also only be used with verbs.

～や～など

～や～など can only be used with nouns, and tends to be used in more formal/written scenarios. It also has no requirements in terms of positive/negative/neutral.

～し～し

Compared to ～やら, ～し is more emphatic and has more use-cases than やら. For instance, providing reasons, adding "and what's more..." to the end of a list, and expressing something without directly saying it.

Wrap-up

Overall, none of these similar grammar points quite fulfill ～やら～やら's most common use case, which is to express an incomplete list of negative things.

And that's a wrap on your first N2 lesson! Can you believe it? You've officially started N2.

From here, there's nowhere to go except up. Up into the hallowed halls of Japanese mastery. Whee!

Summary

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  ～やら～やら can attach to dictionary form verbs/い-adjectives, as well as nouns.

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  ～やら～やら is used to express an incomplete list, and implies that there is more being left unsaid.

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  ～やら～やら is most commonly used in negative contexts to indicate feelings/scenarios that are undesirable in some way, but may also be used in neutral scenarios.

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  ～やら～やら can be used in casual or polite contexts.