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Sentence Help: 私は飲んだり食べたりします。

grandta14

後輩
12 Aug 2013
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I am using the DuoLingo site for learning English from Japanese to help me learn Japanese. I have come to a sentence where I am supposed to translate 'I drink and eat.' into Japanese. Two accepted answers are 「私は飲みます、食べます。」 and 「私は飲んだり食べたりします。」. The first one I understand, but I am having a problem with the second one. Specifically I don't understand what 「飲んだり」 means. I am just starting with verbs, so this may be a basic misunderstanding, but why is it conjugated as such and what is the reading fo the excerpt?

While I'm on the topic, I would also like to know what the 「たりします」 after 「食べ」 means.
 
This is a sentence pattern for enumerating actions. An easy way to construct it is to put each verb in the plain past tense and append a "り"; finally close off the sentence with します.

...<plain past verb 1>り, ...<plain past verb 2>り します。

Using the past tense is just a trick for constructing the verbs though, it doesn't imply that the actions happened in the past.
 
This is a sentence pattern for enumerating actions. Each verb is put in the plain past tense and has a "り" appended; finally the sentence is closed off with します.

...<plain past verb 1>り, ...<plain past verb 2>り します。

Thank you, that does help.
Though I do have to ask you about that bit that you edited out, was it just a mistake or mistranslation?
 
This is a sentence pattern for enumerating actions. An easy way to construct it is to put each verb in the plain past tense and append a "り"; finally close off the sentence with します.

...<plain past verb 1>り, ...<plain past verb 2>り します。

Using the past tense is just a trick for constructing the verbs though, it doesn't imply that the actions happened in the past.

Thank you again; the clarifications in your edits cleared up the other qustions that I had.
 
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