Kocchi, Socchi, Acchi, Docchi - Meaning in Japanese

If you've ever heard these words in anime: kocchi こっち, socchi そっち, acchi あっち and docchi どっち, and thought a character had allergy to stupid main characters or something, know that you were wrong. These words are actually Japanese pronouns and they all have actual meanings.

Like other Japanese kosoado pronouns, you can divide them like this:

• kocchi こっち
  This side. My side.
  This way.
• socchi そっち
  That side. Your side.
  That way.
• acchi あっち
  That side over there. His side.
  That way over there.
• docchi どっち
  What side? Whose side?
  What way?

And they... wait a second. These meanings are exactly like the pronouns kochira, sochira, achira and dochira, aren't they?! How did this happen?!

Kocchi vs. Kochira

Well, turns out kocchi, socchi, acchi and docchi are nothing more than casual, shortened forms of those pronouns over there.

So, though most of the time you'll see a character say kocchi, the proper, formal way to say it's kochira. Though they say socchi, the proper way is sochira. For acchi, it's achira. And docchi, it's dochira. But do note that anime characters never ever say those, only because they speak casually all the time, never formally.

Except for phrases in which formality is important, such as dochira-sama desu ka? どちら様ですか？, "who are you?" you can use these pronouns instead of those pronouns and vice-versa. So much that I'm just copy-pasting their examples as they work pretty much the same way and I think it illustrates the point better.

Usage Examples

• kocchi de nantoka suru こっちで何とかする
  We'll do it somehow. We'll fix it somehow.
  (this means that you, socchi, shouldn't worry about it as we, this side, will manage)
• kocchi e douzo こっちへどうぞ
  Come here.
  Come to us.
• kocchi ni mukatte kuru! こっちに向かってくる！
  (the enemy, monster, whatever) is coming at us!
• socchi wa dou desu ka? そっちはどうですか？
  How are things there?
  (here we're talking about your side, the side of the listener)
• acchi wa watashi no tomodachi desu あっちは私の友達です
  Those are my friends.
  (those, on that side, over there, are my friends)
• okane to shiawase docchi ga hoshii desu ka? お金と幸せどっちが欲しいですか？
  Money or happiness, which do you want?

As you can see, it's literally the same thing with literally the same translations.

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