In English, we typically use this when something is close to us and that when something is
further away. If there are multiple things, we would change that to be these and those.
What about in Japanese, though?
Below I’ll go into the differences as far as I understand them.
Please note I’m still learning Japanese so take everything with a grain of salt.
これ
When talking about things near the person speaking you use the word これ (this). So if
I was going to say, “this is a book,” I would say これは本です. The implication would be
that this book is closer to me than the person I’m talking to.
What if I wanted to say, “these are books”? According to this Japanese Ammo with Misa video,
it would be the exact same sentence, as これ can be used to refer to multiple objects, too.
Yet, if you use Google translate to translate “These are books” into Japanese - you’ll get:
これらは本です. Looking around online, you’ll find a few place that suggest これら is
used for pluralization (multiple objects).
After doing some research, I think that これら can be used interchangeably with
これ - but people may find it slightly too formal or weird in spoken conversations.
If you want to read more on this - here’s an Imambi article as well as a Maggie Sensei Article.
それ
What about if you’re talking about things near the person you’re talking to? For instance,
if I saw an object (that looked like a book) next to someone, I might say, “Is that a book?”.
In Japanese, we would use the word それ (that). So that sentence above would be,
それは本ですか (is that a book?)
Similar to これ - this can also be used with multiple objects - so the same sentence
could mean “Are those books?” depending on the context. Likewise, you can use それら in
a more formal sense or in writing to explicitly call out plurality.
Another thing worth calling out is that それ can be used to reference something previously
talked about. For example, inn One Piece, when Luffy says he’s going to be the king of the
pirates - you might respond with それは無理 (that is impossible - where that is the
idea of becoming the pirate king).
あれ
How about if the object is far away from both the speaker and the listener? That’s where the
word あれ comes into play! If we go back to our book example - imagine I’m standing next to
someone and see an object (or group of objects) in the distance. I could ask, あれは本ですか
(is that a book / are those books?).
あれ also has a unique meaning compared to the other words we’ve talked about. It can be
used as an expression of confusion or laughter. For instance, if your friend says, “I can do
amazing backflips - watch!” and then they flop instead of doing a backflip - you might
respond with あれ or even あれれ？
こちら - そちら - あちら
These are variants on the above words and are used in two primary ways:
- In a very formal setting (such as when you’re a guest in a shop or restaurant)
- If you’re talking about people.
So, if you’re in a restaurant and the waiter / waitress hands you the menu, they might say
こちらがメニューです (This is the menu). You wouldn’t reciprocate this type of formality
back to them, though (at least as far as I understand).
What if you’re talking about people though? Apparently using これ / それ / あれ is
considered impolite. Imagine someone named Maggie is standing next to you and someone asks
who that is. You wouldn’t say これはマギーです - instead, you would say こちらはマギーです.
Final Thoughts
It’s crazy how much meaning / context there is behind all of these grammar points! I’m sure there are still plenty of things I missed - but hopefully I’m not too far off in what I did say :)
Thanks for sticking through the post!