Verified answer

Let's say you are with your friend talking.

You use "それ" for things that your friend has on him/her and also things that are near your friend.

You use "あれ" for things that are not near either of you. For example, you two are looking at a building far from where you are. You use "あれ” in this case.

Hope this helps.

Edit:

By the way, I said "things" but you can use these words for people as well.

Are is used just like aquel in spanish - it is used to refer to something further away then Sore (which would be the equivalent of ese). Kore would be near you, Sore would be near your audience and Are would be far from both of you. So you'ld say:

Dore wa inu desu ka? - Which one is a dog?

Kore wa Inu desu - This is a dog

Sore wa Inu desu - that (near you/us) is a dog

Are wa inu desu - that (over there) is a dog

The constraints on what is are and what is sore are pretty flexible, so just remember that Are is the further away of them.

This also goes for the related words like koko, soko, asoko, and kono, sono, ano etc.

They're used in the same way その (sono) and あの (ano); sono's used to refer to something that's nearby, while ano's used to refer to something that's outside of immediate reach. The difference between kono-sono-ano is that kore-sore-are do not need to be followed by a noun.

その人

Sono hito; (that person [here])

あの人　

Ano hito; (that person [over there]).

*As you can see, sono and ano are used with nouns*

あれは僕のです

Are wa boku no desu; (that's mine [over there]).

それは良い考えですね

Sore wa ii kangae desu ne; (that's a good idea).

*Are and Sore aren't used with a noun here*

sore is that which is close to you.

are is that which is not close to either of the people speaking.

Like, if both of you are standing next to each other, you would say are about somethig across the room.

But if the thing is closer to the other person than it is to you, you would say sore.