Formal, literary, or rhetorical first-person plural. It often sounds collective and emphatic, as in speeches, slogans, songs, or elevated writing, rather than everyday casual conversation.
Let us protect our homeland.
We will not give up until the end.
これは我らの責任だ。
This is our responsibility.
Poetic first-person singular use. This is rare in modern ordinary speech; it is mainly something to recognize in poetry or stylized writing.
この詩の「我ら」は、作者自身を指す一人称として読める。
The “warera” in this poem can be read as a first-person pronoun referring to the author themself.
you; you lot
Rough colloquial address to a group of equals or inferiors. It is not a neutral way to say “you”; it can sound brusque, confrontational, or old-fashioned depending on context.
親方は若い衆に「われら、何をぐずぐずしている」と怒鳴った。
The boss shouted at the young workers, “What are you lot dawdling for?”
我ら、いつまで待たせるつもりなのか。
You lot, how much longer do you plan to keep us waiting?
Let us rise up together.
我々 is the everyday formal “we,” common in speeches and business writing, while 我ら carries a more poetic or rallying, old-fashioned tone.
お前ら is the common rough way to say “you guys,” while the second-person use of 我ら is rarer and sounds more old-fashioned or stylized.
私たち is the neutral, everyday word for “we/us,” whereas 我ら is formal or literary and sounds out of place in casual talk.
Standard mixed kanji-kana spelling and the highest-priority form; often has a formal, literary, or slogan-like tone.
All-kanji variant; tends to look more literary or old-fashioned than 我ら.
Rare kanji variant marked as rarely used.
Native Japanese 我・吾（われ, “I; oneself”） plus the plural or collective suffix ら. The kanji spellings conventionally represent the pronoun; the exact history of the rarer poetic and second-person uses is not specified.