What is your plural for "you"?

[Macman]

Where I live it's "you". Once in a while you'll hear "you guys" but only in a barracks or on a construction site.

[Hamish]

Well,------- "you", of course.

I could not agree more, Jock. Why complicate matters more than they already are?

Take care,
Ham.

[kilted_brewer]

Well,------- "you", of course.

I didn't see it anywhere else in the thread, but I seem to recall from one source or another modern English being described as a very formal language, in that it no longer has a familiar form, forms which are preserved in other languages like French (the only one I have direct experience with).

It's an interesting comparison: using "you" for both intimates and strangers alike at once keeps a distance and yet makes no distinction; it precludes further intimacy while also preventing a slight when used by someone of lower "status" (a stranger, someone younger, a subordinate, etc).

Hooray for English, and for learning another language!

[Father Bill]

That's pretty much the way it is around here in my part of Texas. I say "you" for singular and "y'all" for plural.

Father Bill's slight dig notwithstanding, "y'all" is perfectly good English. It's just a contraction for "you all". If you would say something like "How are you all doing today?" to a group of people, I see no rule against using a contraction in the form of "How are y'all doing today?". If "y'all" is not proper English, then neither is "I'd" or "I'll" or "you'll", etc.

First, thanks for understanding that the dig was indeed intended to be slight, however, I'd like to refine the grammatical application a bit. In the example you've used addressing a group of people, the contraction is probably acceptable although unorthodox. People, however who use "y'all" in place of "you" in a singular context are likely introuducing an unintended use for that contraction since nobody would say "You all are welcome," when addressing a single person. Properly used, contractions are contextually sensitive.

Here endeth the sermon.

[Tobus]

I didn't see it anywhere else in the thread, but I seem to recall from one source or another modern English being described as a very formal language, in that it no longer has a familiar form, forms which are preserved in other languages like French (the only one I have direct experience with).

It's an interesting comparison: using "you" for both intimates and strangers alike at once keeps a distance and yet makes no distinction; it precludes further intimacy while also preventing a slight when used by someone of lower "status" (a stranger, someone younger, a subordinate, etc).

Hooray for English, and for learning another language!

Absolutely right. This is, in fact, a major source of confusion for native English speakers when they are trying to learn other languages that have formal/informal versions of the same word, as well as male/female/neuter versions of nouns.

Personally, I'd love to go back to having English formal/informal versions. I really think "thee", "thou", "thine", and other informal manners of addressing someone should come back into the common lexicon.

*edited to add:

It's funny that you mention French. My brother, who lives in New Orleans, had a hard time understanding the way people talk there until he got used to it. Instead of asking, "what did you say?", they will say, "what you said?" It turns out, as I understand it, that this is the way it would be said in French, and many of the French-speakers would get confused when they would say it in English, so it sort of became the norm. The same goes with the famous old greeting of Justin Wilson (extra points to those who remember him), when he would say, "How y'all are?" at the beginning of his show. I'm led to believe this is another result of French-speakers trying to speak English and getting it almost right, and becoming a colloquial norm. Is this true?

[Tobus]

People, however who use "y'all" in place of "you" in a singular context are likely introuducing an unintended use for that contraction since nobody would say "You all are welcome," when addressing a single person. Properly used, contractions are contextually sensitive.

Agreed. Which is why I don't use "y'all" for the singular. And it always sounds odd when I hear it.

[Jim Simmons]

In the central highlands of Guatemala where I live, the majority of the people will use ¨ustedes¨ for the plural of ¨you¨. But when speaking English, as I am an ex-pat Southerner from the great State of Arkansas, I will of course say ¨y´all¨.

[Pleater]

Well - where I lived, the plural of thee was thou - though pronounced thei and thah.

King James bible English still going strong. Yeah.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[thescot]

I've never known a real southeren to use "y'all" for the singular. Since the dropping of "ye" for the second person, plural personal promoun, there has been a problem for all speakers of English to be sure that "you," the Standard American English for of that pronoun, is understood to be plural when intended. The context doesn't always allow for a clear antcedent.

In the South, we use "y'all" exclusively. I have had friends from the more nothern or even western parts claim that we use it for the singular, and even point to something I've said as proof. E.g., I was speaking to a fellow Marine from Boston one time, and I said something like "Y'all don't eat grits, do you?" He immediately jumped on it, saying that since I was speaking to him alone--there was no one else around--I was using it in the singular. But I pointed out that he was mistaken, as I had intended it to mean somehting like "you, and others of that ilk" when I had used the word, "y'all."

I can assure you that anyone using "y'all" in the singular is likely to be posing as a Soutnerner, at least, in my 58 years on this earth, I've never once heard it used as a singular pronoun except by those attempting to mimic Sothern speech, usually in a somehat pejorative manner, as if "y'all" was somehow less sophisticated than "yous" or "y'uns."

NOw, I'm just waiting for someone of the Southern persuasion to come on and say, "Well, I use it for the singular," If so--OK, fine. But rest assured it would be the first Southerner I've ever known who did so.

[piperdbh]

What Jim said. Twice.