Difference Between 僕たち and 僕ら?


Both **僕たち** and **僕ら** mean **we**. But is there any difference between them?
I.e. one of them is more formal than the other, or any grammatical nuances?

**Edit:** How is this a duplicate? The question linked by Szymon discusses the
_necessity_ of using the pluralizing affixes rather than the _difference_
between them. The "Bonus" question asked by Amanda was _not_ answered either.




Strictly speaking, there is a slight diffference in nuance between the two. If
you asked, however, if most native speakers actually used the two forms
"correctly" in different situations, the answer would definitely be negative.

The difference is in the degree of humility expressed. 「僕ら」 expresses a
somewhat higher degree of humility about the speaker himself and his gang than
「僕たち」 does.

Would we expect Japanese-learners to know this and use the two forms according
to the occasion? I am not even going to answer that because y'all should know
we are the kind of people who will praise you frantically if you can say more
than two Japanese words with the thickest foreign accent.

Seriously, though, I feel that native speakers actually know deep inside about
that degree of humility thing even if we might not be careful enough to use
the two forms differently in our daily lives. I say this because I do know
that very few of us, if any, would ever use phrases like
「[先生]{せんせい}ら」、「お[師匠]{ししょう}さんら」, etc. where we know that we are expected to
show respect. 「僕ら」 is different because it refers to the speaker himself and
his company.

