In English, when we have three or more items, only the last "and" is kept, and the rest are omitted.
I like fish, curry, sausage, and honey.
What is the standard way to list multiple items in Japanese?
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1「趣味はスキー(と)、ゴルフ、日本語の勉強、カラオケです」とは違い、「趣味はスキーやゴルフ、日本語の勉強、カラオケなどです」というと趣味はその４つ以外にももっとありそうな感じがしますし、「アメリカやイギリス、フランスなどの７つの…」というとその３つの国だけでなく他にも言及されていない４か国があるんですよね（「アメリカ(と)、イギリス、フランスの７か国」は変ですね）。英語では、I like fish, curry, sausage, and honey は「魚(と)、カレー、ソーセージ、はちみつ」のちょうど４つ、という意味ですか？それとも、その４つ以外にもありそうですか？「魚やカレー、ソーセージ、はちみつなど（その他にもある）」ときには、英語ではどう言えばいいですか？– chocolate ♦May 18, 2016 at 9:45
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1@chocolate I believe lists in English are generally interpreted to be exhaustive unless stated otherwise. If you wanted to imply there are other items being left out, I might say "The foods I like include (but are not restricted to) fish, curry, sausage, and honey", "I like foods like fish, curry, sausage, and honey", or "Some foods I like are ..."– seafood258May 19, 2016 at 15:48
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なるほど、教えてくれてありがとうございます！<m(__)m>– chocolate ♦May 20, 2016 at 6:45
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@chocolate No problem. Always glad to be of help. :)– seafood258May 22, 2016 at 6:16
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1 Answer
As stated in this other answer,
趣味はスキーやゴルフ、英語と日本語の勉強、カラオケなどです
When making longer lists of things, Japanese typically works, unsurprisingly perhaps, in the reverse of English, with further conjunctions omitted.
Notice that "や" is only attached to the first element, and omitted afterwards.
You can see another example of this in this article:
アメリカやイギリス、フランスなど７つの国の大統領や首相が集まる会議
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1I think often this first や is omitted and replaced by a comma, do you agree? May 17, 2016 at 11:57
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2Really? I can't seem to recall, but after trying to dig up some examples, most seemed to follow this pattern. I'll admit that I don't have much confidence though, and I was hoping someone could clear things up. This was admittedly more a question than a Q&A. :P May 18, 2016 at 1:44