Can や mean 'with' similarly to と?

と and や can be used to list things with the difference being that と indicates an exhaustive list, while や means that there can be more in the list, than what’s mentioned.
I know that と can also mean ‘with’ in cases like
e.g.: “公園になおさんと行きました” = “I went to the park with Nao”.
Coul I replace the と with a や to say that I went there with Nao and some more?

Like this:
“公園になおさんや行きました” = “I went to the park with Nao (and someone else).”?

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Reading the grammar dictionary seems to imply that no, you can’t. If you want to imply the presence of others, you can just say ~たち, though. なおさんたちと.

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I feel like “公園になおさんと人たちと行きました” would be my first guess, but not sure, if that would work?
I have the impression that ~たち makes things plural, so could なおさんたち sound like there are multiple Naos, like there are many people with the name Nao? I mean, would it sound like I went to the park with several people called Nao, if I said “公園になおさんたちと行きました”?

なおさんたち = Nao-san and the others.

Not even sure how you’d say more than one person named Nao. なおたちさん, maybe?

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ーたち is one of the cooler things about Japanese grammar. You’re referring to the group that なおさん is part of, rather than pluralising なおさん like you would in most languages.

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I tend to think of や as “things like”, or “such as”, rather than “and”. Maybe that will help you?

Yeah, no one would think なおさんたち meant many people named なお.

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I guess in extremely casual usage, you could say なおさんズ to mean several people named “Nao”. That’s the English -s plural ending rendered in katakana. :slightly_smiling_face:

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