“While the system differentiates singular from PLral, the PLral is actually a grouping in which the head noun forms the locus of a group. This is to say, whereas in English, if I stateMy cousins are coming to visit us tomorrow, all those people who come to my house the next day will be my relatives. If, on the other hand, I state the Japanese equivalent,ashitaitoko-tachi gatazunete kureru, the only thing I have stated with assurance isthat more than one person will come, and that one of those people,but not necessarily all of those people, are my relaitives.Similarly, proper names may also be PLralized in Japanese.Thus,nobuko-tachi usually means “Nobuko and her friends”, althoughin the right context it could also mean “several people with thename Nobuko”.”