Is the word you plural or singular

• You are a good friend.
• You are very good friends.(plural)

 
Past Simple:

• You were a fit guy 2 years ago.
• You were very fit 2 years ago.(plural)

 
Future Simple

• You will call me tomorrow.(singular or plural depending on the context)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

«You» and «Your» are not to be confused with U, Ewe, Yew, or Ure.

In Modern English, you is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most^{[citation needed]} modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.

History

You comes from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base *juz-, *iwwiz from Proto-Indo-European *yu— (second-person plural pronoun).^[1] Old English had singular, dual, and plural second-person pronouns. The dual form was lost by the twelfth century,^[2]: 117 and the singular form was lost by the early 1600s.^[3] The development is shown in the following table.^{[2]: 117, 120, 121}

Second-person pronoun in Old English, Middle English, & Modern English

	Singular	Dual	Plural
	OE	ME	Mod	OE	ME	Mod	OE	ME	Mod
Nominative	þu	þu		ġit		ġe	ȝē	you
Accusative	þe	þē	inc	ēow	ȝou
Dative
Genitive	þīn	þī(n)	incer	ēower	ȝour(es)	your(s)

Early Modern English distinguished between the plural ye and the singular thou. As in many other European languages, English at the time had a T–V distinction, which made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors.^[3] This distinction ultimately led to familiar thou becoming obsolete in modern English, although it persists in some English dialects.

Yourself had developed by the early 14th century, with the plural yourselves attested from 1520.^[4]

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, you has five shapes representing six distinct word forms:^[5]

• you: the nominative (subjective) and accusative (objective or oblique case^[6]: 146) forms
• your: the dependent genitive (possessive) form
• yours: independent genitive (possessive) form
• yourselves: the plural reflexive form
• yourself: the singular reflexive form

Plural forms from other varieties

Although there is some dialectal retention of the original plural ye and the original singular thou, most English-speaking groups have lost the original forms. Because of the loss of the original singular-plural distinction, many English dialects belonging to this group have innovated new plural forms of the second person pronoun. Examples of such pronouns sometimes seen and heard include:

• y’all, or you all – southern United States,^[7] African-American Vernacular English, the Abaco Islands,^[8] St. Helena^[8] and Tristan da Cunha.^[8] Y’all however, is also occasionally used for the second-person singular in the North American varieties.
• you guys [ju gajz~juɣajz] – United States,^[9] particularly in the Midwest, Northeast, South Florida and West Coast; Canada, Australia. Gendered usage varies; for mixed groups, «you guys» is nearly always used. For groups consisting of only women, forms like «you girls» or «you gals» might appear instead, though «you guys» is sometimes used for a group of only women as well.
• you lot – United Kingdom,^[10] Palmerston Island,^[11] Australia
• you mob – Australia^[12]
• you-all, all-you – Caribbean English,^[13] Saba^[11]
• a(ll)-yo-dis – Guyana^[13]
• allyuh – Trinidad and Tobago^[14]
• among(st)-you – Carriacou, Grenada, Guyana,^[13] Utila^[11]
• wunna – Barbados^[13]
• yinna – Bahamas^[13]
• unu/oona – Jamaica, Belize, Cayman Islands, Barbados,^[13] San Salvador Island^[8]
• yous(e) – Ireland,^[15] Tyneside,^[16] Merseyside,^[17] Central Scotland,^[18] Australia,^[19] Falkland Islands,^[8] New Zealand,^[11] Philadelphia,^[20] parts of the Midwestern US,^[21] Cape Breton and rural Canada^{[citation needed]}
• yous(e) guys – in the United States, particularly in New York City region, Philadelphia, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan;^{[citation needed]}
• you-uns, or yinz – Western Pennsylvania, the Ozarks, the Appalachians^[22]
• ye, yee, yees, yiz – Ireland,^[23] Tyneside,^[24] Newfoundland and Labrador^[11]

Semantics

You prototypically refers to the addressee along with zero or more other persons, excluding the speaker. You is also used to refer to personified things (e.g., why won’t you start? addressed to a car).^[25] You is always definite even when it is not specific.

Semantically, you is both singular and plural, though syntactically it is always plural: it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, (i.e. you are, in common with we are and they are).

Third person usage

You is used to refer to an indeterminate person, as a more common alternative to the very formal indefinite pronoun one.^[26] Though this may be semantically third person, for agreement purposes, you is always second person.

Example: «One should drink water frequently» or «You should drink water frequently».

Syntax

Agreement

You always triggers plural verb agreement, even when it is semantically singular.

Functions

You can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement.^[5] The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct. You occasionally appears as a modifier in a noun phrase.

• Subject: You’re there; your being there; you paid for yourself to be there.
• Object: I saw you; I introduced her to you; You saw yourself.
• Predicative complement: The only person there was you.
• Dependent determiner: I met your friend.
• Independent determiner: This is yours.
• Adjunct: You did it yourself.
• Modifier: (no known examples)

Dependents

Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for you to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases.

• Relative clause modifier: you who believe
• Determiner: the real you; *the you
• Adjective phrase modifier: the real you; *real you
• Adverb phrase external modifier: Not even you

Pronunciation

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the following pronunciations are used:

Form	Plain	Unstressed	Recording
you	(UK) /juː/ (US) /jə/	/ju/ /jə/	female speaker with US accent
your	(UK) /jɔː/ (US) /jɔr/	/jʊə/ /jʊ(ə)r/	female speaker with US accent
yours	(UK) /jɔːz/ (US) /jɔrz/	/jʊəz/ /jʊ(ə)rz/	female speaker with US accent
yourselves	(UK) /jɔːˈsɛlvz/, /jʊəˈsɛlvz/ (US) /jɔrˈsɛlvz/, /jʊrˈsɛlvz/	/jəˈsɛlvz/ /jərˈsɛlvz/
yourself	(UK) /jɔːˈsɛlf/, /jʊəˈsɛlf/ (US) /jɔrˈsɛlf/, /jʊrˈsɛlf/	/jəˈsɛlf/ /jərˈsɛlf/	female speaker with US accent

See also

• Generic you
• English personal pronouns
• Thou
• Y’all
• Yinz

References

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• ye (archaic nominative, dialectal plural)
• ya, yah, yer, yeh, y’, yo, yu, yuh (informal or eye dialect)
• -cha (informal, after /t/)
• -ja (informal, after /d/)
• u (informal, internet)
• yoo (eye dialect)
• yew (obsolete or eye dialect)
• youe, yow, yowe (obsolete)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English you, yow, ȝow (object case of ye), from Old English ēow (“you”, dative case of ġē), from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz (“you”, dative case of *jīz), Western form of *izwiz (“you”, dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *yūs (“you”, plural), *yū́.

Cognate with Scots you (“you”), Saterland Frisian jou (“you”), West Frisian jo (“you”), Low German jo, joe and oe (“you”), Dutch jou and u (“you”), Middle High German eu, iu (“you”, object pronoun), Latin vōs (“you”), Avestan 𐬬𐬋‎ (vō, “you”), Ashkun yë̃́ (“you”), Kamkata-viri šó (“you”), Sanskrit यूयम् (yūyám, “you”)

See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; Low German ji, jo/ju, jug and German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with archaic Swedish I.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (stressed)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: yo͞o, IPA^(key): /juː/ ^help,
  • (General American) enPR: yo͞o, IPA^(key): /ju/ ^help
  • (General Australian) enPR: yo͞o, IPA^(key): /jʉː/
  • Rhymes: -uː
• (unstressed)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: yo͞o, IPA^(key): /ju/
  • (General American, General Australian) enPR: yə, IPA^(key): /jə/ ^help
• Homophones: ewe, u, yew, yu, hew (in h-dropping dialects), hue (in h-dropping dialects)

When a word ending in /t/, /d/, /s/, or /z/ is followed by you, these may coalesce with the /j/, resulting in /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, respectively. This is occasionally represented in writing, e.g. gotcha (from got you) or whatcha doin’? (more formally what are you doing?).

Pronoun[edit]

you (second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective, possessive determiner your, possessive pronoun yours, singular reflexive yourself, plural reflexive yourselves)

1. (object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object. [from 9th c.]

   Both of you should get ready now.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 42:14, column 1:

     And Ioſeph ſaid vnto them, That is it that I ſpake vnto you, ſaying, Ye are ſpies.

2. (reflexive, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. [from 9th c.]

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     If I may counsaile you, some day or two / Your Highnesse shall repose you at the Tower […].

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis XIX::

     And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.

   • 1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug:

     ‘Pull you up a chair,’ she offered.

   • 1975, Joseph Nazel, Death for Hire:

     You’d better get you a gun and kill him before he kills you or somebody.

3. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) [from 13th c.]
   • c. 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII:

     I charge you, as ye woll have my love, that ye warne your kynnesmen that ye woll beare that day the slyve of golde uppon your helmet.

4. (subject pronoun) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.) [from 14th c.]

   You are all supposed to do as I tell you.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Are you excited? ― Yes, I am excited!

5. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) [from 15th c.]
   • c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, «The Clerk’s Tale», Canterbury Tales, Ellesmere manuscript (c. 1410):

     certes lord / so wel vs liketh yow / And al youre werk / and euere han doon / þat we / Ne koude nat vs self deuysen how / We myghte lyuen / in moore felicitee […].

   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 208:

     You are right, Fanny, to protest against such an office, but you need not be afraid.

7. (indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object). [from 16th c.]
   • 2001, Polly Vernon, The Guardian, 5 May 2001:

     You can’t choose your family, your lovers are difficult and volatile, but, oh, you can choose your friends — so doesn’t it make much more sense to live and holiday with them instead?

Usage notes[edit]

• Originally, you was specifically plural (indicating multiple people), and specifically the object form (serving as the object of a verb or preposition; like us as opposed to we). The subject pronoun was ye, and the corresponding singular pronouns were thee and thou, respectively. In some forms of (older) English, you and ye doubled as polite singular forms, e.g. used in addressing superiors, with thee and thou being the non-polite singular forms. In the 1600s, some writers objected to the use of «singular you»^[1] (compare objections to the singular they), but in modern English thee and thou are archaic and all but nonexistent and you is used for both the singular and the plural.
• Several forms of English now distinguish singular you from various marked plural forms, such as you guys, y’all, you-uns, or youse, though not all of these are completely equivalent or considered Standard English.
• The pronoun you is usually, but not always, omitted in imperative sentences. In affirmatives, it may be included before the verb (You go right ahead; You stay out of it); in negative imperatives, it may be included either before the don’t, or (more commonly) after it (Don’t you dare go in there; Don’t you start now).
• The pronoun you is also used in an indefinite sense: the generic you.
• See Appendix:English parts of speech for other personal pronouns.

Synonyms[edit]

• (subject pronoun: person spoken/written to):

  yer (UK eye dialect)

  plus the alternative forms listed above and at Appendix:English personal pronouns

• (subject pronoun: persons spoken/written to; plural): See Thesaurus:y’all
• (object pronoun: person spoken/written to): thee (singular, archaic), ye, to you, to thee, to ye
• (object pronoun: persons spoken/written to): ye, to you, to ye, to you all
• (one): one, people, they, them

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

• Belizean Creole: yu
• Bislama: yu
• Cameroon Pidgin: you
• Jamaican Creole: yuh
• Nigerian Pidgin: yu
• Sranan Tongo: yu
• Tok Pisin: yu
• Torres Strait Creole: yu

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

Determiner[edit]

you

1. The individual or group spoken or written to.

   Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus?

2. Used before epithets, describing the person being addressed, for emphasis.

   You idiot!

   • 2015, Judi Curtin, Only Eva, The O’Brien Press, →ISBN:

     ‘You genius!’ I shouted in Aretta’s ear. ‘You absolute genius! Why didn’t you tell us you were so good?’

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

you (third-person singular simple present yous, present participle youing, simple past and past participle youed)

2. (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun you (in the past, especially to use you rather than thou, when you was considered more formal).
   • 1930, Barrington Hall, Modern Conversation, Brewer & Warren, page 239:

     Youing consists in relating everything in the conversation to the person you wish to flatter, and introducing the word “you” into your speech as often as possible.

   • 1992, Barbara Anderson, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Victoria University Press, page 272:

     Now even Princess Anne had dropped it. Sarah had heard her youing away on television the other night just like the inhabitants of her mother’s dominions beyond the seas.

   • 2004, Ellen Miller, Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books, «Practicing»:

     But even having my very own personal pronoun was risky, because it’s pretty tough to keep stopped-hope stopped up when you are getting all youed up, when someone you really like keeps promising you scary, fun, exciting stuff—and even tougher for the of that moment to remain securely devoid of hope, to make smart, self-denying decisions with Dad youing me—the long ooo of it broad and extended, like a hand.

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

you (plural yous)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter U.
   • 2004 Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, p. 170

     It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, «Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh.»

Alternative forms[edit]

• u

References[edit]

Cameroon Pidgin[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• yu

Etymology[edit]

From English you.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ju/

Pronoun[edit]

you

1. thou, thee, 2nd person singular subject and object personal pronoun

See also[edit]

Japanese[edit]

Romanization[edit]

you

1. Rōmaji transcription of よう

See also[edit]

• yō

Karawa[edit]

Noun[edit]

you

1. water

References[edit]

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Leonese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Leonese yo, from Vulgar Latin eo (attested from the 6th century), from Latin ego, from Proto-Italic *egō; akin to Greek εγώ (egó), Sanskrit अहम् (aham), all from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂.

Pronoun[edit]

you

1. I

See also[edit]

Mandarin[edit]

Romanization[edit]

you

1. Nonstandard spelling of yōu.
2. Nonstandard spelling of yóu.
3. Nonstandard spelling of yǒu.
4. Nonstandard spelling of yòu.

Usage notes[edit]

• Transcriptions of Mandarin speech into the Roman alphabet often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

you

1. Alternative form of yow

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

you

1. (chiefly Northern and East Midland dialectal) Alternative form of þou

Mirandese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Leonese you, from Vulgar Latin eo (attested from the 6th century), from Latin ego.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /jow/

Pronoun[edit]

you

1. I (the first-person singular pronoun)

   • 2008, Picä Tumilho (band) (music), “Ai que cochino!!! (ver. II)”, in Faíçca: Ua stória d’amor i laboura:

     I you cun muita fuorça spetei bien la faca

     And I strongly skewered (with) the knife.

Pouye[edit]

Noun[edit]

you

1. water

References[edit]

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Takia[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Bargam yuw and Waskia yu.^[1]

Noun[edit]

you

1. water

References[edit]

• Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Meredith Osmond, The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: The Culture and Environment (2007, →ISBN

Terebu[edit]

Noun[edit]

you

1. fire

Further reading[edit]

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

Previous Topic
·
Next Topic

Touchito

Posted: Saturday, April 22, 2017 11:05:49 AM

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 6/29/2013
Posts: 21
Neurons: 364
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Back to top FounDit

Posted: Saturday, April 22, 2017 12:41:59 PM

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/19/2011
Posts: 19,178
Neurons: 95,408

The word «you» can be singular or refer to any person in general.

The context reveals which one is meant. In your example, the words, «you and all other people» reveals that «you» is the individual person. This is because «all the other people» has been added.

If the word «you» meant all people, then those words would not have been added. The writer was writing to you, a single person. If the writer had been writing to any person reading what he wrote, he would have said, «…you will also find out what you really are; how you got here; exactly why you and all other people behave and feel the way that you do». In this sentence, each «you» means any person — it is a general «you», similar to ustedes.

«You all» is not used quite as much, and in the southern part of the US is often shortened to «y’all». It is very informal and is used most often to refer to more than one person.

Back to top thar

Posted: Saturday, April 22, 2017 2:13:10 PM

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 7/8/2010
Posts: 28,117
Neurons: 115,220

Back to top Touchito

Posted: Monday, April 24, 2017 11:14:54 PM

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 6/29/2013
Posts: 21
Neurons: 364
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Hello!
Thank you very much, FounDit and thar, for your interest and time. Your answers are really helpful. I hope other ESL students with the same confusion find your posts here.
Regards.

Back to top Users browsing this topic Guest