What is your plural for "you"?

[creagdhubh]

"You," naturally old boy!

[Meggers]

"you guys" which is a pretty Midwestern thing. And from what I know, "y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.

[Lyle1]

In Philadelphia the plural for you is "yous/yuz/youse." Not quite sure of the proper(?) spelling. Strange how if you go six hours west to Pittsburgh it becomes "yunz/yinz/yuns."

Not strange at all! The Pittsburgh area comprises the geographically smallest dialectical area in the United States. What should be of interest for this group is that many of the particulars of the dialect are attributed to the many Scots who settled in the area in the early 1700's. The Scottish influence stuck due to the remoteness of the area and the many low mountains which isolated many settlers. Some words or expressions, such as "red up" (meaning to clean or tidy up) are now used only in the Pittsburgh area, but can be found in the English popular literature of the early 1800's.


I use "you" for both singular and plural. I will admit that when I lived in Philadelphia, I occasionally let slip a "youze," and as a native of Pittsburgh, "yins" and other local dialect sometimes slips out, not matter how hard I try to keep it locked away in some dark recess of my being.

I have a friend from Pittsburgh now lives in Australia who easily identified a fellow Pittsburgh native while standing in a line at an amusement. The other women was shocked and asked how my friend knew where she was from. My friend replied, "Well it was pretty obvious when you said, yins kids get back here."

[madmacs]

You.... Unless i'm annoying the natives, and then it's y'all

Of course y'all is usually paired with "Is" which allows a significant amount of versatility since it can be rightly used before y'all as in "Is y'all... " or after y'all as in "y'all is..."

Of course neither colloqualism sounds 100% correct with a British accent...

[Meggers]

My vocabulary is pretty weird. Most of what I say is uniquely Midwestern with a thick and ugly Wisconsin accent but Ive also been known to drop a "y'all" once in awhile too. Also, "eh" has become big in my vocab. I think the further North you live in WI, the more common "eh" becomes. I use it mainly as a rhetorical question kind of word though.

"So ya like kilts, eh? I like em too, donchya know."

Actually I don't say Donchya know. That can stay in Minnesota where it belongs

[kc8ufv]

Mostly, it's "you", occasionally "you guys", though when I was in HS, in Latin class, for ease of diferentiating between singular and plural (as there IS a difference in Latin) the teacher used "y'all".

[Phil]

Coming from Glasgow originally it would have to be "yooze wans" but it's not in the list.

[ForresterModern]

Learned the "king's" english from my father who was raised in a hollow (holler) in coal country in West Virginia, and who spoke fluent hillbilly up until he finsihed college and masters degree and moved to northeastern Ohio as a teacher. He quickly realized that his hillbilly accent was a significant detractor from his ability to be respected by both his colleagues and students, so he "taught" himself out of his accent, and taught all of us kids the same way. My mother, from the same small WV town, also developed better grammar but never quite lost all her accent. Since they moved back to WV 17 years ago some of the accent has crept back into their speech. Since all my extended family remained in the WV-VA area we picked up some hillbillyisms, which come out when I am either intoxicated or back among my "people" in the hills. Among them it is either y'all or you all, and I admit falling back into that more and more now that I live in Kentucky and visit family in WV--VA more often.

Growing up in northeastern Ohio we said You, but had a lot of "hunkie" (generic term for eastern european immigrant offspring--hungarian, ukrainian, russian, lithuanian, polish, etc..) friends who used the "yunz" variant.

[Peter Crowe]

Coming from Glasgow originally it would have to be "yooze wans" but it's not in the list.

Yes indeed some folk I grew up with used that expression or variations thereof (youze, yez, etc.). However, many who like me speak Scottish Standard English and/or Scots with noticeable Glasgow accents do not. I always use you both plural and singular.

[J_Mimbs]

Actually I don't say Donchya know. That can stay in Minnesota where it belongs

And we thank you for that.



Just kidding; it doesn't really bother me its just an easy phrase to make fun of.