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?)
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2011-06-19T02:41:06.880
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usage plurals plural-suffixes
Pluralization in Japanese: usage of -たち and -ら
「～[方]{がた}」, 「～[達]{たち}」, and 「～[等]{ら}」 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.
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2011-06-19T02:56:51.927
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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]{うめ・だ}ら辺 → the area(s) around Umeda
>   * あそこら辺 → those places/areas over there
>
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2011-06-19T04:21:17.230
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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.).
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2011-06-19T04:42:20.563
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> 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
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2012-07-27T05:31:12.040
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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.
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2012-07-30T00:09:54.357
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I don't see that anyone has mentioned it, but exclusively either たち or ら are
permitted for certain pronouns. For example:

彼ら ✅ | 彼たち ✕

See the [Wikipedia article on Japanese
pronouns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns) for more info
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