〜たりする

(single use, softening) can be, may sometimes be; things like

Formation: V-た form + り + する; い-adj 〜かったりする; な-adj/N 〜だったりする

Beyond listing actions (A たり B たりする), a single たり can present something as one possibility or an occasional case, softening the statement. It is common in conversational and essay Japanese, and often suggests a mildly surprising truth. A plain sentence asserts the point flatly, while たりする leaves room for exceptions.

Variants: 〜だったりする、〜たりもする

Examples

安い店のほうがおいしかったりする。
The cheaper places can actually taste better.
週末は一日中寝ていたりする。
On weekends I sometimes just sleep all day.

In real texts 1 occurrence(s)

じぶんへの戒めとして、書いておく（笑） · 2026年11月7日

難しいと思えることも、やればできることと裏表の同じものだったりする。

Things that seem difficult can turn out to be one and the same as what you can do if you try, just the other side of it.

This is a single たり with no second item listed, attached to the past form of 同じものだ. It isn't listing actions: it softens the claim to "can turn out to be the same thing." The writer avoids a flat 同じものだ because he is offering this as an observation from experience and not a rule that holds every time. Learners who expect the textbook A たり B たり pattern may look for a missing second item, but there isn't one.