The to (と) particle is one of the most extensive particles in Japanese grammar. For today, we’ll only look at two possible meanings that can be conveyed by to (と).

The to (と) particle can be used as a conjunction. You can use to (と) to add nouns together. For example, you could say, ‘I study English and Japanese’ using the to (と) particle. In Japanese this would be eigo to nihongo o benkyoshimas (えいごと　にほんごを　べんきょします). In this case, to (と) puts together the noun eigo (えいご) and nihongo (にほんご). The to (と) almost acts as the ‘and’ of the sentence. Another example would be, ‘I play basketball and tennis’. In Japanese it’s: basuketto to tenis o shimas (バスケット　と　テニスを　します).

To (と) can also be used to indicate words like ‘with’. A sentence like, ‘Takeshi will go to Japan with Miyako’ in Japanese would be ‘takeshi wa miyako to nihon ni ikimas’ (たけしは　みやこと　にほんに　いきます). You could also say, ‘I talked with a friend’, which would be ‘tomodachi to hanashimashita’ (ともだちと　はなしました). Notice here that the word for ‘I’ (watashi)(わたし) is dropped, because it’s already implied that the speaker talked with a friend.