Pluralization in Japanese: usage of -たち and -ら

Question

I know that -たち and -ら pluralize the nouns they come after (or indicate a group that the noun is part of), but most of the time the plural in Japanese is implicit. When is it appropriate or necessary to use -たち or -ら?

(Bonus question: is there any difference except formality between -たち and -ら?)

Answer 1

「～方」 (「～がた」), 「～達」, and 「～等」 have the same meaning as "et alia" or "and company" in English; you use it when you mean one person (any of the three suffixes) or animal (「～達」 and 「～等」 only) and all the others that are attending them (e.g. 「アマンダさん方」).

「～方」 is honorific and 「～達」 is neutral, but 「～等」 is deprecating or familiar and so should usually only be used with family or the first person unless you have a specific reason for it.

Answer 2

Adding to the previous answer, I feel that usage with the so-called Japanese pronouns is somewhat of a special case. For one, the plural cannot be implied without adding a suffix. 私, 彼, 彼女 and あなた alone never mean (approximately) we, they or the plural you. Secondly, I don't think adding ～達 or ～等 has the nuance of putting an emphasis on any one individual in the group, as they do when used with other nouns.

Also, one more pluralizing method, though one that is used very restrictively - both in regard to vocabulary and style, is reduplication. It's used mostly with natural landmarks (山々、木々) and (in child-language and as a dual) body parts (目々 etc.).

Answer 3

This doesn't relate to the necessity/appropriate-ness of when you use them necessarily, but it's related to the topic in general. So I'll post it.

Note that there are several other ways to pluralize things, but their usage is very limited:

ども:　Used as a very humble plural. 広辞苑 cites 「私ども」and 「身ども」. I've heard of the former, but apparently 「身ども」 was used in old samurai speech.
とも： Means "all" when added to another noun. 「３人ともパーティーにいった」(All three of them went to the party); 「りんごは５つとも腐っていた」(All five of the apple were rotten).

Also, concerning ら, it is often used to "pluralize" places/areas (at least in Kansai-ben); often formed with ～辺(へん).

梅田ら辺（うめだらへん）- the area(s) around Umeda; あそこら辺 - those places/areas over there.

Answer 4

Unfortunately I don't have a good answer, but I do have one fact to toss out there, since it doesn't look like anyone else has yet. A number of Japanese linguistics texts I've seen indicate that it's a fallacy that -たち and -ら are pluralizers. Rather, it's claimed that their meaning is qualitative rather than quantitative, and it's merely that most cases where they are used are also plural semantically (correlation rather than causation). I know I've seen (though I don't recall in which article it was) counterexamples where they're used with singular meaning. That said, I don't well understand what they actually mean.

Answer 5

When is it appropriate or necessary to use -たち or -ら?

• The suffixes are very appropriate when you're refering to a group of people, for example: 君達、お前ら. That's what a teacher would say to his students. In that case, it seems to me that ら is quite harsh.

お前ら、なにしているのかい？ (angry guy addressing a group of noisy youngsters)

君達には明るい将来があります! (schoolmaster during graduation ceremony)

マイク達と一緒に飲んでいたんだ (youngster telling his mother he was out drinking with Mike and his other pals)

• The suffix ら is used in formal writing to mean "et al.", and written in kanji, as in this famous scientific publication written by 小林等

Answer 6

In my experience, -たち, is used when it's necessary to emphasize plurality. I've also seen -ら used the same way, but only in familiar circles. That's not to say that it would be insulting to use -ら for people with whom you are not acquainted, but that's just what I've observed.

An example is when I was on my exchange program in Japan. We were getting our picture taken at 白川郷. All us students were ready to get our picture taken, and then the guy taking the picture said "先生も！" Only the one professor came up to get her picture taken so the guy says "先生たちきてよ！" and so they all came up. So that's an example of a situation where it's necessary to clarify plurality.

Additional, I've only seen -たち and -ら used for a group of people, such as 私たち, 僕たち、先生たち, and even 子供たち. I've also seen あなたら,僕ら (us, I've heard that in songs a lot),　おまえら, and 彼ら (they, them). So generally I only use it for that specific set of words. That being said, I would say that -ら itself isn't deprecating or informal, but rather that it is only applied to deprecating or informal pronouns.

Hope this helps!