～たち／～ら
plural suffix for people
Japanese nouns usually do not mark plural at all, 子供 can mean “child” or “children”. When you want to make a group explicit, the suffixes ～たち（達）and ～ら（等）do the job. They attach mainly to words for people: nouns like 子供 and 学生, and pronouns like 私 and 彼.
～たち is the neutral, safe choice in any register; ～ら sounds casual and can even be rough. Both are optional, Japanese has no mandatory plural (except for pronouns like "we").
1. Groups of people
Add ～たち to a noun for people to say explicitly that there is more than one.
子供たちは公園で遊んでいる。
“The children are playing in the park.”
- 子供たち（こどもたち）= children
- は = topic marker
- 公園（こうえん）= park
- で = at (place of action)
- 遊んでいる（あそんでいる）= are playing
2. “We” and “they”: pronoun + たち／ら
On pronouns the suffixes form the everyday words for “we” and “they”: 私たち, 彼ら, 僕ら. The ら versions lean casual, and お前ら is downright blunt.
彼らはもう帰りました。
“They've already gone home.”
- 彼ら（かれら）= they
- は = topic marker
- もう = already
- 帰りました（かえりました）= went home
3. “X and their group”
On a person's name, ～たち usually does not mean several copies of that person, it means that person and the people with them.
田中さんたちはもう着きましたか。
“Have Tanaka and the others arrived yet?”
- 田中さんたち（たなかさんたち）= Tanaka and his group
- は = topic marker
- もう = already
- 着きましたか（つきましたか）= have (they) arrived?
～たち vs ～ら
～たち works in almost any situation, polite or plain. ～ら belongs to casual speech and to set pronoun combinations like 彼ら, 僕ら, and 君ら; with rough words like お前ら it can sound aggressive.
How to form it
Noun / pronoun for people + たち or ら
- 私（わたし）= I → 私たち（わたしたち）= we
- 子供（こども）= child → 子供たち（こどもたち）= children
- 彼（かれ）= he → 彼ら（かれら）= they
- 僕（ぼく）= I (casual, male) → 僕ら（ぼくら）= we
Key idea
Japanese plural marking is optional (except for pronouns like "we"). Reach for ～たち or ～ら when the group itself matters. たち is the all-purpose choice, ら the casual one, and on a name ～たち means “that person and the people with them”.
Other N3 grammar
Updated .