inclusives

Inclusives, in linguistics, describe a set of grammatical mechanisms that mark whether the addressee is included in the first-person plural. The key distinction is between inclusive and exclusive we: an inclusive form means the speaker and listener(s) are both part of the group, while an exclusive form excludes the listener. In languages with a clusivity system, this distinction may appear in pronouns, in verb agreement, or in both.

Most widely cited examples come from languages such as Indonesian and Malay, where kita is the inclusive "we" and kami is the exclusive "we." Tagalog uses tayo (inclusive) and kami (exclusive). Other languages have more complex systems with separate inclusive and exclusive pronouns for different persons or numbers, and some also mark inclusion in verbal morphology.

Beyond pronouns, inclusivity can be expressed in demonstratives and other parts of the grammar. The presence or absence of an inclusive form can influence discourse, formality, and social relations, and researchers study clusivity to understand how languages encode group belonging and social dynamics. In some language communities, the choice of we form can signal politeness, solidarity, or distance, and the system can vary by dialect or register.

See also: pronoun, clusivity, inclusive language.