How are to-do lists written in Japanese?

Japanese Language Questions
1

I like to make a lot of checklists as you may be able to tell if you see my study log, and I’d like to start writing my daily to-do lists in Japanese. It’s a good way to practice handwriting kanji, use vocab, and plan out my day. The problem is I don’t actually know what form the verb should be in.

For example, in English, we’d write it like this:

  • make breakfast
  • feed the cat
  • clean living room
  • read ten pages
    …and so on

But in Japanese, do we write it using the plain form?

  • 朝ご飯を作る
  • 猫を餌をやる
  • 居間を掃除する
  • 十ページ読む

Or using the て form?

  • 朝ご飯を作って
  • 猫を餌をやって
  • 居間を掃除して
  • 十ページ読んで

Or maybe the 連用形?

  • 朝ご飯を作り
  • 猫を餌をやり
  • 居間を掃除し
  • 十ページ読み

Or is it something else? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help with this :smiley:

2

Great idea! I do lists for activities all the time and I naturally gravitated to plain form/dictionary form/辞書形.

I just asked my husband for confirmation and he agrees

^ this is normal😊(also just corrected a particle in the second line just fyi)

3

It’s probably up to personal preference if you’re writing it just for yourself, however I’m not sure if there’s any “customary” way of doing lists that other people will be reading.

I would have guessed either dictionary form or て form (since it’s a “commanding” form, similar to how lists are phrased in English. However I’m aware that Japanese and English use different paradigms so that analogy might go right out the window.)

4

This reminds me of when I started writing my grocery list in Japanese. :slight_smile:

5

I’ve pondered trying that, only my vocabulary for food items is severely lacking. Might be a good excuse to study them, lol

6

When I compiled my original shopping list, I double checked it to make sure the picture of that item would come up if I searched on google.
For instance猫(ねこ)缶(かん)
image
りんご
image

In Japan, we shopped at the スーパ daily, and knowing food words was great.

7

Ok, that’s what I initially thought, but I wasn’t sure. Thanks for the help!

And thanks for correcting that particle, idk why I put two をs in there

8

This sounds like it ought to mean “canned cat” :slight_smile:

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9

also they have 犬(いぬ)缶(かん)

image

10

I learned this word from pro wrestling! Haruna Neko (whose gimmick is I think self-explanatory) from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling has a move called the 猫缶ラニャ. It’s a double pun on a move called a hurricanrana, which is a variation of a rana, a move that was named after the Spanish word for frog (here’s a bit more about it, courtesy of an American indie wrestler explaining it in English for a Japanese wrestling commentator who wanted to know where the name came from).

So 猫缶ラニャ, “nekocan raNYA”, is a pun on hurricanrana, incorporating both the word for canned cat food and the word for meow. :durtle_cat: