Questions tagged [plurals]
複数. Words or grammatical constructs that express multiplicity.
31
questions
0
votes
1
answer
91
views
Translation and plural - girl and girls! [duplicate]
Sorry for the question that will certainly be trivial, but for me Japanese is totally unknown territory.
I should translate this sentence into Japanese: "The Girls and the Heron" (it would ...
1
vote
1
answer
119
views
Can you call a group of people by a subgroup of 2, and if so then how?
What I understand:
A way of referring to a group of people by just 1 person can be done with saying [name]-[honorific, if any] tachi. (I seem to be right based on this and this.)
Eg For the group of ...
- 605
0
votes
1
answer
94
views
Definiteness and Plurality Strategies
According to https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/definite-indefinite-articles.html 猫の耳 can be translated as any of the following.
Cat's ear.
A cat's ear.
The cat's ear.
Cats' ear.
The cats' ear.
...
- 547
5
votes
1
answer
990
views
When is it inappropriate to use the pluralizing suffixes -たち, -ら?
In "A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar", it says that there are cases where -tachi cannot be attached to a noun, as in:
a. 川本と柴田は大学の教師(*たち)だ。(Kawamoto and Shibata are college ...
- 138
2
votes
1
answer
73
views
Use of ら in 博士ら、 警察官ら
Typically ら is used to form plurals or groups of people in casual situations, when it is used pejoratively, or in set words such as 彼ら. たち seems to be prefered in other situations ○○さんたち、あなたたち、 私達, ...
- 1,166
4
votes
1
answer
212
views
Do genitive numerical phrases block the plural?
Context:
[両]{りょう}の[貴様]{きさま}は[明日]{あした}の[末]{すえ}に[亡]{な}いです。
with the intended meaning
Both of you will be dead by the end of tomorrow.
This question is about the 「両の貴様は」. I understand that the "...
- 53
3
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Addressing a group of people with -tachi (たち) and name of one
I knew the general idea of -tachi, as explained e.g. here: "Hey Bro!" how to call out friends
However, in one ラノベ I read the following situation: Assume there is a supervisor Asahi and 2 ...
- 133
6
votes
1
answer
452
views
か as a suffix to mean "a few": Why is 何__かがVERB not allowed
Here is yet another puzzling sentence for me from a dictionary I am using:
何ページ か 欠けている。 A few pages are missing. (研究社)
My understanding is that while 何ページ ambiguously means "what/which/how many ...
- 1,222
1
vote
1
answer
96
views
Would this be plural or singular?
In a sentence like 白と黒の犬がいます, would it be saying, "There is a black dog and a white dog," or, "There is one black and white dog"?
- 233
4
votes
1
answer
140
views
Referring to Group of Differentiated Objects
This is a bit esoteric, but it is something that came up recently when I was thinking about how to translate a piece of writing I have been working on for a while into Japanese. In any case, one of ...
- 1,075
7
votes
3
answers
264
views
Equivalent of 【一人で】for a multi-person group unit
I am trying to translate the English expression "left to their own devices"/"left to themselves"/"in a vacuum" into Japanese, and the best I could come up with would be something involving 「ひとりで」, but ...
- 1,075
3
votes
2
answers
168
views
Question about the sentence 私が手伝いましょう。
Im using an Anki deck to study vocabulary. It's translation for the sentence 私が手伝いましょう is "Can I help you?". Im a bit confused, as I see no question marker in that sentence. I would guess it's ...
- 363
2
votes
2
answers
901
views
Indicate more than one?
I want to say "I love my cats," but I don't know how to convey more than one.
I've come up with 「私は私の猫大好きです」but I don't know what to do to indicate I have more than one cat.
- 243
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
Can you disambuguate a specific noun from a general noun with たち
A person was talking about living near a particular mountain. I want to say:
I want to live near the mountains too
where I mean mountains in general, not the specific one he is talking about.
If I ...
- 29.5k
3
votes
3
answers
270
views
Is たち in 子供たち redundant?
In my understanding, 達{たち} is a suffix used to pluralize a countable noun. For example,
私 (single) becomes 私たち (plural)
あなた (single) becomes あなたたち (plural)
According to most dictionaries, 子供 can be ...
- 7,437
3
votes
1
answer
150
views
Plural reflexives: among themselves
Suppose there are two groups/teams A and B within the same conversational space, and I'm in group A. How would I say:
"they (group B) discussed among themselves" (as opposed to discussing with ...
Flaw♦
- 19.9k
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Plural form with -たち／-ら
I found a similar.question here on stackexchange, but I can't properly understand the answers given there. And the textbook Genki doesn't give much of a detailed explanation on the plural form.
What ...
user10337
2
votes
1
answer
228
views
"この" vs "こちらの" with regard to implied plurality
この
この文型{ぶんけい}は文{ぶん}の作{つく}り方{かた}を示{しめ}している。
こちら
こちらの文型は文の作り方を示している。
In all contexts, "この文型..." refers to just one grammatical pattern?
"こちらの文型..." might refer to one grammatical pattern, or ...
- 637
1
vote
1
answer
129
views
why does "ら" follow "山中{やまなか}" here: "山中ら、予備検診{よびけんしん}で異常{いじょう}なし"
In the newspaper article titled 山中ら、予備検診で異常なし…ＷＢＣバンタム級, what meaning is created by placing "ら" after "山中"?
Does it make "山中慎介" plural, and then "山中ら" means something like "Yamanaka and his hangers-on"...
- 639
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Politeness / political correctness and gender polarity of "plural" suffix -等(ら) for 彼 and 彼女 etc
The definitions on ejje.weblio:
彼ら
彼女ら
What I would like to know is:
彼ら is definitely gender neutral and 彼女ら can only have females in the group, right?
As explained in Why is “学生” made “plural” ...
- 639
0
votes
3
answers
524
views
Why is "学生" made "plural" in this newspaper article?
The ending of the first line of the first paragraph in the newspaper article titled さくら市の歩み一冊に reads
... さくら市の記念誌を文星芸大（宇都宮市）のデザイン専攻の学生たちが制作した。
My understanding is that that means:
The students who ...
- 639
0
votes
0
answers
122
views
How to do plurals? [duplicate]
I've seen there are two ways of saying we and pluralizing words using:
ら、たち
But I can't see the difference and I'm not sure if it can be used with all the pronouns. Are there other forms of ...
- 511
3
votes
1
answer
239
views
Is スポーツ a plural-only word?
Typically there is no pluralization in Japanese unless specified. For example:
この車【くるま】は綺麗【きれい】。
This car is clean. / These cars are clean.
Does スポーツ work in the same way? Considering the ...
- 105
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does 友達 have the plural marker たち "built-in"?
I cannot recall this very clearly so I'm sorry if this is all not correct but someone once told me that the word 友達{ともだち} has the plural marker たち "built-in" and therefore you cannot say 友達たち about ...
- 3,697
4
votes
2
answers
812
views
Plural in ancient Japanese?
It is known to Japanese learners that the Japanese verb isn't affected by the subject (number or gender). Today, a linguistics professor of my university told me he heard from his teacher that ancient ...
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What is the difference in usage between a plural using (a) the kanji repetition character 々, (b) a plural using -たち, and (c) the singular?
I know that there are some noun that are made plural by the kanji repetition character, such as 人々 and 国々. My question is, how does this differ from using the non-plural form of the noun? And how does ...
- 4,297
2
votes
1
answer
401
views
The plural 等 in おいら, おら
Why do the singular first person pronouns 俺{おい}等{ら} and 俺{お}等{ら} involve the plural affix 等?
user458
5
votes
2
answers
826
views
What rules should be followed when saying "we"?
I know that, in Japanese, you can say X達【たち】 or Xら (where X is a first person pronoun) to say we.
However, what rules should be followed for choosing that "X". Can I use whatever I would use to refer ...
- 3,407
9
votes
1
answer
981
views
What are the rules for the plural suffix ～ら
I came across the following in a newspaper article:
藤沢健太教授（宇宙物理学）らの研究グループ
The first part (藤沢健太教授) is the name of a professor (Professor Kenta Fujisawa). The parentheses say "Astrophysics", and ...
- 7,285
31
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Pluralization in Japanese: usage of -たち and -ら
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 ...
- 7,799
2
votes
0
answers
176
views
What's the standard for making plurals of Japanese words in English? [closed]
There's the movie "Seven Samurai", which would sound strange as "Seven Samurais", but in the news you often read about "hundreds of tsunamis". Some people say they know 500 kanjis, but I've always ...
- 7,058