YOU

#REDIRECT User talk:TheStick

YOU

#REDIRECT User:TheStick

You

''You'' is the second person plural pronoun in English language. In standard English, it serves as the second person singular pronoun as well. In modern standard English, ''you'' serves as both the nominative case and oblique case. The genitive case is ''your'', and the possessive predicate pronoun is ''yours''. == Etymology == It is descended from Old English language ''ge'' or ''ȝe'', (both pronounced roughly like Modern English ''yea'') which was the old nominative case form of the pronoun, and ''eow'', which was the old accusative case form of the pronoun. In Middle English the nominative case became ''ye'', and the oblique case (formed by the merger of the accusative case and the former dative case) was ''you''. In early Modern English either the nominative or the accusative forms have been generalized in most dialects. Most generalized ''you''; some dialects in the north of England and Scotland generalized ''ye'', or use ''ye'' as a clipped or clitic form of the pronoun. ''Ye'' and ''you'' are cognate with Dutch language ''jij'' and ''jou'' (''gij'' in dialect or old Dutch), German language ''ihr'', and Gothic language ''jus''. The specific form of this pronoun is unique to the Germanic languages, but the Germanic forms ultimately do relate to the general Indo-European forms represented by Latin ''vos''. == Both singular and plural == In standard English, ''you'' is both singular and plural; it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, such as ''you Copula''. This was not always so. Old English distinguished between the plural ''you'' and the singular ''thou''. This distinction was lost in modern English due to the importation from France of a Romance languages linguistic feature which is commonly called the T-V distinction. This distinction made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. This distinction ultimately led to familiar ''thou'' becoming obsolete in standard English. Ironically, the fact that ''thou'' is now seen primarily in literary sources such as the King James Version (often in reference to God) or Shakespeare (often in dramatic dialogs, e.g. "Wherefore art thou Romeo and Juliet?"), has led many modern anglophones to perceive it as more ''formal'', not familiar (case in point: in ''Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back'', Darth Vader addresses the Emperor saying, "What is thy bidding, master?"). Because ''you'' is both singular and plural, various English dialects have attempted to revive the distinction between a singular and plural ''you'' to avoid confusion between the two uses. This is typically done by adding a new plural form; examples of new plurals sometimes seen and heard are ''you-all''/''y'all'' (primarily in the Southeast United States), ''you guys'' (Midwest, Northeast, West Coast), ''youse''/''youse guys'' (Australia, New York City region), and ''you-uns''/''yins'' (Pennsylvania). [http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/staticmaps/q_50.html] All of these new plurals are marked as basilectal, though they may be useful. English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English, sometimes uses the word ''ye'' as the plural form of ''you''. ''You'' is also unusual in that, being both singular and plural, it has two reflexive pronoun forms, ''yourself'' and ''yourselves.'' However, in recent years singular ''themself'' is sometimes seen: see ''singular they''. ''For a discussion of the alternative "ye" spelling of the definitive article, please see � or Ye Olde.'' ---- == Y'all == In the Southern United States dialects of American English, the term '''''y'all'', a contraction of ''you all''''', serves as the vernacular second-person plural pronoun. Because, in formal written English, the second-person pronoun ''you'' can be both singular and plural, many regional or national dialects have developed an informal distinction. This distinction is often made by adding a word to follow ''you'' in order to make a pronominal phrase for the plural. In British English, for example, the function is served by the phrase ''you lot''. In many U.S. dialects, we find ''you guys'' (or, quite often, ''yous guys''). Likewise, in the Deep South, the appropriate term is ''y'all''. == See also == *Wiktionary:you simple:You American English

You

==Not a Wiktionary candidate== I removed a notice that had been placed here by User:Radiant!. This page goes well beyond a dictionary definition and contains extended discussion in complete sentences that put it well beyond the scope of a dictionary entry. -- User:Ihcoyc 13:39, 25 May 2005 (UTC) == One or two articles? == I reverted the edit by 152.163.100.13 that split the article into two (one for the singluar and one for the plural). Since both are "you", it is less confusing to have that content in the same article. I also restored the redirect from plural of you back to this page. User:Tobycat 22:37, 29 May 2005 (UTC) The reason why I split the article is because, some people find the need to have a y'all article and that's why I think it would be good to have an article about plural forms of you, not just y'all itself. * Hi. I'm still not sure why splitting the article in two helps out people who want to have a y'all article. Since y'all redirects back to you, people looking for y'all would find what they are looking for within a consolidated article. Strategically, I don't think that fragmenting information and requiring additional clicks to get to it makes sense when it can be avoided. Since y'all currently redirects to you (and plural of you used to redirect back to it before you made the change) anybody looking for information in any of these three ways could do it and get directly to the content they wanted. Under the changes you have made, anybody wanting content pertaining to the plural of you would have to enter 'plural of you' to get to it directly in the search box. I don't want to get into an edit war with you which is why I have not changed it back, but I would like to see some further justification for why this content should be split up. How does it help the user to have this information in two locations instead of one? User:Tobycat 04:29, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

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Y