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*disclaimer:*I'am still learning hiragana, so forgive me for any wrong spelling

I've learnt that _normally_ only males use ぼく (boku). What about ぼくたち
(bokutachi)? Should it _normally_ be reserved for male-only groups or can it
be used by a male to refer to a mixed-gender group of "we"? Can a female use
it to refer to a mixed-gender group?
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2013-09-13T14:01:28.143
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question
pronouns gender
Can ぼくたち (bokutachi) be used for mixed-gender group?
It is perfectly normal for ぼくたち to refer to mixed-gender groups. For example,
when I talk to a third person about something my wife and I are going to do
together, I say ぼくたち. Generally, when referring to groups of single _or_ mixed
gender of which they are a member, males use ぼくたち (or some other masculine
variant like おれたち) and females use わたしたち (or another feminine variant like
あたしたち). However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule and there are many, many
exceptions (my favorite example being the female character 九兵衛【きゅうべえ】 from the
manga/anime 銀魂【ぎんたま】 who always refers to herself as ぼく and therefore also
frequently uses ぼくたち).
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2013-09-13T15:10:00.930
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answer
〜たち is a suffix which means more or less "the group to which _< someone>_
belongs". So ぼくたち refers to the speaker as ぼく, but it _also_ refers to the
group to which they belong, and it can be used as long as ぼく is appropriate
for that _one_ person.

In other words, it's **not** a "plural" marker, so it doesn't matter whether
the group is mixed-gender or not. They're not all being identified as ぼく. Only
one person is.

Of course, the same thing is true if you attach 〜たち to a name. If I write
田中{たなか}さんたち, I'm not referring to a bunch of 田中さんs. I'm referring to _one
person_ as 田中さん, and I'm also referring to the group to which 田中さん belongs.

And finally, the other similar suffixes in Japanese, such as 〜ら and 〜がた,
function the same way. 彼{かれ}ら refers to 彼, but also to the group to which that
person belongs. So it can be used for mixed-gender groups too, as long as it's
okay referring to the person in question as 彼. And so on.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-13T19:35:06.690
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2013-09-13T19:35:06.690
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answer