What is your plural for "you"?

**OC Richard** · 3rd November 11, 04:48 AM

At work we were having the discussion yesterday about how Californians say "you guys" for the plural of "you". Now, where I'm from (central West Virginia) we say "you all" (two seperate words) for the plural but "you" for the singular.

But one of our employees says "y'all" for the singular and "all y'all" for the plural. "You" doesn't exist for him.

A friend from "Picksburg" says "yinz" for the plural.

So what is it where you live?

**Father Bill** · 3rd November 11, 05:06 AM

Oddly enough, in Ontario most of us speak English, so the plural of "you" is "you."

**Standard** · 3rd November 11, 05:10 AM

You guys is normally said, but there is a good healthy dose of you-uns thrown in for good measure.

**English Bloke** · 3rd November 11, 05:19 AM

What I say for You collectively is "You" or "You all" depending on context, as in "I'd like you all to vote in this poll". I voted You all anyway but then I'm a stranger in town. I've only lived here 13 years. What is commonly said where I live is "Yuz". 40 miles south (Liverpool) it's "Youse" (as in ooze) and 40 miles more (Birmingham) it's "Yowse" (as in hows, there's a bit more to the phonetics than that but I can see your eyes glazing over already...). Nice thread. Luv accents and dialects me! We Brits can pack considerable variation into a very small space.

**denmcdough** · 3rd November 11, 05:24 AM

Richard, we in the "Picksburgh" area (SW PA) are definitely the yinz/yuns type. We have our own lingo here. In fact there's a book called Pittsburghese.

**J_Mimbs** · 3rd November 11, 05:44 AM

When I put any thought into it, which is not all that often, its most likely to be "you" for singular and "y'all" for plural. But I won't say its hard and fast around here.

**dutchy kilted** · 3rd November 11, 05:59 AM

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."

**CDNSushi** · 3rd November 11, 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by Father Bill

Oddly enough, in Ontario most of us speak English, so the plural of "you" is "you."

**McFarkus** · 3rd November 11, 06:19 AM

I voted for 'You' but with a mother from Virginia and a couple of years of living in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Rome, Georgia, I confess to throwing in an occasional y'all.

**O'Searcaigh** · 3rd November 11, 06:19 AM

Great question! I grew up in southern California in the 50s/60s and learned to use "you" for both singular and plural as well as the indefinite pronoun (i.e., instead of using "one"). In the early 70s I moved to Mississippi where I heard (and had a very hard time adjusting to say) "y'all" for the plural, with "you" always used for the singular. After many years I adjusted to saying "y'all" for the plural as it began to make sense to me grammatically to distinguish plural from singular references (and because an English Professor colleague convinced me of its usefulness). Then, I moved back to the west coast (north-west this time) where my acquired use of "y'all" was "foreign" (as they used "you" for both singular and plural) but some there seemed to take personal offense if one used "you" instead of "one" in some contexts (e.g., "You should tell the truth" vs "One should tell the truth.") I moved back to the south (mid-south this time) where I ignorantly assumed my acquired southern acculturation might again be the norm. Not so! Here it is "U'ins" as well as other regional linguistic peculiarities. So mostly I now just try to keep my mouth shut. ' Hope I haven't offended any of you, y'all, you all, you guys, dudes, ... ! Oh hades, one can only do what one can. P.S.: My spell checker must not be from the south; it doesn't like the regional contractions!