The 들 in 많이들 드세요 is not the 들 in 사람들

You learn 들 early: 사람 becomes 사람들, 학생 becomes 학생들, and the rule seems settled — 들 is the plural suffix, it sits on nouns, done. Then someone at a family meal says 많이들 드세요, or a shopkeeper waves a group in with 어서들 오세요, and the rule stops fitting. 많이 is an adverb. 어서 is an adverb. Neither one is a noun you can count, so “many many”s or “quickly-quickly”s makes no sense — and yet there the 들 sits, attached like it belongs.

It belongs. It is just not the suffix you already know.

What does 들 mean in 많이들 드세요 or 어서들 오세요?

It marks that the sentence’s subject is plural — it does not pluralize the word it’s attached to. 표준국어대사전 lists this as a separate dictionary entry from the plural suffix: a particle (grammarians call it a 보조사, or “auxiliary particle”) that can attach to nouns, adverbs, several verb endings, or even the very end of a sentence — you’ll see exactly which ones below. Its job is to signal that the sentence’s subject is more than one person. 많이들 드세요 is being said to a table of people, not to one; the plurality belongs to the diners, and 들 just rides on the nearest convenient word to say so.

The 국립국어원 — the National Institute of Korean Language — has answered exactly this question twice through its 온라인가나다 service. One answer describes the auxiliary particle 들 as attaching after “체언, 부사어, 연결 어미 ‘-아, -게, -지, -고’, 합성 동사의 선행 요소, 문장의 끝” to mark that the subject of the sentence is plural, giving 텔레비전을 보고들 있다 (“they’re watching television”) and 다들 잠이 들었다 (“everyone fell asleep”) as its own examples (국립국어원 온라인가나다, answer #329843). Neither 보고 nor 다 is a noun. A second answer, asked to tell the two 들s apart directly, adds the detail that matters most for spotting which one you’re looking at: the particle “주어에는 붙지 않습니다” — it does not attach to the subject itself — and contrasts 산에 나무들이 많다 (suffix, on the noun 나무) with 너희는 그대로들 있어 (particle, on the adverb 그대로) (국립국어원 온라인가나다, answer #326975). The dictionary is describing the same particle that shows up in 많이들 and 어서들.

Two 들s, doing two different jobs

They look identical and they are unrelated dictionary entries.

	Plural suffix -들	Agreement particle 들
Attaches to	a countable noun or pronoun	an adverb, a verb’s connective ending, the first half of a compound verb, or the end of a sentence
What becomes plural	the word itself	the sentence’s subject, which is usually left unstated
Example	사람들 — people	많이들 드세요 — eat up, everyone
Drop it and…	you lose the plural entirely: 사람 just means “a person”	the sentence stays fully correct: 많이 드세요 still works, said to a table of one or many

That last row is the practical difference. Drop the suffix and you have changed the word’s meaning. Drop the particle and the sentence is untouched — you have only removed a small, optional flag that the speaker was addressing more than one listener. Korean drops subjects constantly, and this 들 is one of the few tools it keeps around for reattaching a “you-all” or “everyone” that the sentence never says out loud.

You can watch both forms work in the same sentence, because they don’t compete: 학생들이 다들 왔어요 — “the students all came” — has the suffix on 학생 making the noun plural, and the particle on 다 (“all”) agreeing with that same plural subject a second time. Korean doesn’t consider that redundant; it considers it emphatic.

Where you’ll actually meet it

Almost always attached to a handful of high-frequency spots, and almost always in speech aimed at more than one listener:

• On an adverb of manner or degree, especially in something offered to a group: 많이들 드세요, 어서들 오세요, 천천히들 가세요 (“go slowly, everyone”).
• On 흔히, when the implied subject is people in general: 흔히들 오해하는데 — “people commonly misunderstand, but…” The plural here is an unstated 사람들; 흔히 itself is not being counted.
• Lexicalized onto 다 as 다들, which is common enough that most learners meet it as its own word — “everyone” — well before meeting the particle it’s built from.
• On a verb ending, per the dictionary’s own 보고들 있다 example — 들 riding on the connective ending -고 rather than on a noun.

Register-wise, this is spoken and directive far more than it is formal or written. It shows up when a speaker is addressing a room — a table, a group of coworkers, a class — and wants the “everyone” built into the sentence rather than stated as 여러분 or 너희. Formal writing tends to just name its plural subject, so you will meet this 들 far more in dialogue than on a page.

The test that actually works

Don’t try to judge this by meaning first; judge it by what the 들 is sitting on. A noun or pronoun immediately before it, with no space and no other grammar in between — 사람들, 우리들 — and you’re looking at the suffix. Anything else touching it — an adverb, a verb form, a connective ending, the tail end of the sentence — and it’s the agreement particle, and the plurality it’s reporting belongs to a subject that isn’t written anywhere near it. Once you’re checking attachment instead of guessing from the translation, 많이들 stops looking like a typo and starts looking like exactly what it is: Korean quietly telling you how many people it’s talking to.

What to take from this

• 들 on a noun or pronoun is the plural suffix; 들 on anything else — adverbs, verb endings, sentence ends — is a separate auxiliary particle marking that the sentence’s subject is plural.
• The particle doesn’t pluralize the word carrying it. Dropping it never breaks the sentence, only removes the “more than one listener” signal.
• The two can stack in one sentence without being redundant: 학생들이 다들 왔어요 marks the same plural subject twice, on the noun and on the adverb.
• You’ll meet it mostly in speech directed at a group — offers, greetings, and commands like 많이들 드세요, 어서들 오세요, and 조심들 해 — rarely in formal writing.
• Judge which 들 you’re looking at by what’s directly in front of it, not by what the sentence seems to mean.

It’s a small piece of grammar — one syllable, easy to skim past once you know the rule — which is exactly why it’s the kind of thing you recognize on the page and then miss completely at conversation speed, where 많이들 and 많이 differ by a syllable you have half a second to catch. That gap between reading grammar and actually catching it in real sentences is the argument in how I improved my Korean listening. up103 builds listening practice out of the notes you already keep, so a distinction like this one comes back at you in a sentence instead of staying a rule you read once. Founding Learners get 6 months free, then 50% off for life, at app.up103.com.

— 에드, up103