Using the word guys

Asked by: Bailee Mraz

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(29 votes)

Guys sentence example. When you guys get here, I’ll leave with you. I hope you guys enjoyed supper, because this is going to be my last trip. He wouldn’t let us do any sort of test like what he just proposed until you guys arrived.

What is the plural for guys?

The plural form of guy is guys.

Are guys grammatically correct?

In casual speech, Americans have evolved the slangy expression “you guys” to function as a second-person plural, formerly used of males only but now extended to both sexes, but this is not appropriate in formal contexts.

What does the phrase you guys mean?

informal : you —used in speech and informal writing to refer to or address two or more people How are things with you guys?

What can I say instead of guys?

Alternatives to «guys»:

15 related questions found

The Southern American translation of «Hey, you guys!» is «Hey, y’all!», which suggests that the informal second person plural guys addressing a mixed gender group is 1) the same inclusive/generic masculine that’s been around for centuries, but 2) is perceived by those using the form to be gender neutral, and 3) the source of other plural uses in the third person that may seem gender neutral or not depending on circumstance and audience.

Wiktionary has the following usage note:

In plural, guys is not completely gender-neutral but it may refer to people of either sex in some circumstances and forms; the greeting “Hey guys” can generally refer to people of either gender. This usage is not always seen as accurate or correct. Referring to a group as “guys” usually means a group of men or a mixed-gender group, since describing a group of women as guys, as in “The Pussycat Dolls are a bunch of guys”, suggests that they are male, and is generally viewed as incorrect or inaccurate in that usage. In contrast, the all-male band Green Day could accurately be described as “a bunch of guys” in slang. The usage of the plural guys in the phrase “some guys chased them away” would generally be assumed to mean men rather than women.
When used of animals, guy usually refers to either a male or one whose gender is not known; it is rarely if ever used of an animal that is known to be female.
In some varieties of US and Canadian English, you guys revives the distinction between a singular and plural you, much like y’all in other varieties; in this sense, guys is gender-neutral.

You can also read there how the etymology really goes back to Guy Fawkes and that in earlier centuries, a woman dressed like a guy most likely wasn’t in a flannel shirt, jeans, and workboots.

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The words guy and guys usually describe a man or men. Therefore, it may seem strange to say «Hey guys!» or «You guys» to a group that includes women. However, it is a common phrase in casual situations.

Quick History: The Loss of ‘Thou’ for Second-Person Singular

The pronoun ‘you’ used to only be used with plural groups. To refer to a singular person, instead of using ‘you‘, people would use ‘thou, thee, or thine‘.

First-person singular:	I
Second-person singular:	Thou/three/thine
Third-person singular:	He/She/It
First-person plural:	We
Second-person plural:	You
Third-person plural:	They

However, after the 18th century, people stopped using thou and starting using ‘you‘ to refer to both singular (e.g. one person) and plural (more than one person) groups. This led to the confusion we have today. (Read the longer origin story of the word guy here.)

First-person singular:	I
Second-person singular:	You
Third-person singular:	He/She/It
First-person plural:	We
Second-person plural:	You
Third-person plural:	They

So What Can and Should We Say?

You see a group of women at the beach and you want them to help you find your dog. What do you say?

Is it Insulting to Call Women ‘Guys’?

There are people who think the term guys isn’t gender-inclusive. In other words, it refers to a whole group of people as men, which excludes the fact that there are women present. If you feel that you are with people who might take offense to being called a guy, then be safe and use a more standard expression such as you or you all.

If English continues to become more inclusive (e.g. moving from ‘businessmen’ to ‘businesspeople’) and people continue to examine the language they use more closely, it’s possible that ‘hey guys‘ (when also referring to women) will slowly disappear from English.

For now, hey guys is a commonly used English expression in North America in casual situations. In more formal situations, it is more professional to use you or you all.

Possessive Form of You Guys

Based on my experience and some research (1, 2), there are two ways to make you guys into a possessive form:

1. It’s you guys’ fault. 
2. It’s your guys’ fault.

As a Canadian, I would use #2 before #1. However, technically #1 is correct because your is the second-person singular. Here’s a perfect example written by the user Dimcl on WordReference Forums:

• (First Person to landscape contractor): Your guys wrecked my garden!
• (Landscape contractor): My guys did not!
• (First Person I’ve seen the tire tracks from your guys’ truck!
• (First Person to Guys): You guys’ truck drove over my garden!

Key Points

If we use your guys for both the second person singular and second-personal plural forms, then we are creating more confusion. To avoid this problem, avoid using the possessive form of you guys altogether because it sounds awkward (unnatural). For example:

• You guys’ Your truck drove over my garden!
• It’s you guys’ your team’s fault.
• I enjoyed your guys’ your group’s presentation.

Guys’ Possessive Pronunciation

You may hear two forms:

1. It’s you guys’ fault. — /gaiz/ — one syllable as you would expect
2. It’s your guys’ fault. — /gaiz/iz/ — two syllables — the extra syllable /iz/ is the same sound as the pronunciation of other plural nouns that end with ‘z’ such as quizzes, whizzes, prizes, etc.

In my opinion, both are acceptable. A sentence with you guys in its possessive form is fairly rare and probably best to avoid, so there isn’t a compelling reason to argue about why one pronunciation is more proper than another.

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I hope this post has been useful to you all. If you have a question, please leave a comment below.

— Matthew Barton / Creator of Englishcurrent.com (copyright)

Listen up, everyone: we know you all have questions, so let’s talk about the terms guys and you guys. You may be asking if there are any good substitutes for such useful terms. The answer is yes, and we have suggestions for each and every one of you. (Including some that we just used without y’all even noticing it).

Is guys gender-neutral?

For years, the term guys and expressions like you guys have been commonly employed to address groups regardless of the gender of the group’s members, including by women addressing other women.

Despite the long history of this kind of use, such terms nevertheless carry gendered origins and connotations. The singular guy, for example, is never used to address or refer to an individual girl or woman. Applying the terms guys and you guys indiscriminately can end up excluding, ignoring, or creating discomfort for some people—particularly women and nonbinary people.

For these reasons, some people prefer to avoid using such terms, because they prefer not to be addressed in these ways or want to respect the preferences of those who don’t.

Gender-neutral words for guys

There’s no doubt that the word guys is useful and, for many people, extremely frequently used. It can be hard to stop using language that comes so naturally, especially when it seems hard-coded into the way we communicate. But there are plenty of similar—and very simple and familiar—terms that can serve all the same functions with complete gender-neutrality.

We’ve done our best to avoid clunky approximations that often miss the mark tone-wise or overstep familiarity (not all strangers like to be called friends, for example). Here are some suggestions for replacing guys or avoiding its use.

names

Here’s a simple alternative to saying guys or you guys: address people with their names.

you

When thinking about alternatives to you guys, the simplest solution is often to just drop the guys. You is used by itself as a plural in this way all the time.

y’all

Y’all is a contraction of you all, a construction that English speakers in the US South have found useful for centuries. There are similar regionalisms (like yinz, you-uns, yous, and youse), but these are far less widespread and recognizable than y’all, whose use has spread beyond the South.

you all, all of you, all

You all and all of you are options that come with a lot of the same benefits as y’all but without the regional association. They can be used in many of the same ways that you guys is used.

For example:

• What did you all do this weekend?
• Do you all have some time to help me with this?
• I can’t believe all of you did this for me.
• Hey, all of you, come look at this.

The word all can be used by itself as a term of address for groups.

For example:

• Hey, all, check this out.
• Attention, all: please gather round.

each of you

To address individuals within a group, you can use the phrase each of you.

For example:

• Each of you will have a chance to ask a question.

you both, both of you, you two

You both, both of you, and you two function the same way as you all and all of you except that they are reserved for addressing two people, instead of larger groups.

For example:

• What did you both do this weekend?
• Do both of you have some time to help me with this?
• I can’t believe you two did this for me.

Of course, these phrases can be easily varied to address specific numbers of people, as in the three of you, you four, all five of you, etc.

folks, you folks

Addressing people by actually using the word people can be tricky—it can be used to sound positive (Good job, people!), but it’s also associated with less polite use (Come on, people, get it together!).

What about people vs. peoples or persons? Read more about these terms.

A good alternative is folks, which, like y’all, has some built-in friendliness. And the phrase you folks can easily stand in for you guys.

For example:

• What did you folks do this weekend?
• Hey, folks, come look at this.
• Are you folks interested in looking at the dessert menu?

If you feel like folks sounds too, well, folksy, there are also some very general options.

everyone, everybody

Easy, go-to options to address a large group of people are everyone and everybody.

For example:

• What did everyone do this weekend?
• Hey, everybody, come look at this.

All of the options to this point have been very general. But there are also options that work for more specific situations, such as when you want to be more informal or when you’re communicating in the classroom, the workplace, or with a team.

team, squad, crew, etc.

Informal collective terms of address like these are best reserved for people you’re familiar with, such as your close colleagues at work or a group of children.

For example:

• Nice work, team.
• OK, squad, listen up.
• Hey, crew, settle in and let’s get started.

students

In classroom settings, the obvious option is students (which also works as an easy-to-remember alternative to the gendered boys and girls).

kids, children

Parents who want to avoid using the word guys (when addressing a son and daughter, for example) may be grasping for a term that packs as much meaning as the exasperated inflection of it (“Guys. Guys.”)—the one that’s meant to simultaneously scold and generate immediate attention (used upon occasions such as discovering wet clothes between couch cushions). In this case, may we suggest applying that same inflection to gender-neutral alternatives, such as kids, children, or little squirrels. (Finding ways to simultaneously express affection and frustration is among the main challenges of parenthood.)

peers, colleagues

These options for a professional setting can convey a sense of equality and warmth. If you feel like it would sound sincere, you could even throw in an adjective like esteemed. In the case of peers, though, just make sure that the people you’re addressing actually are (or consider themselves) your peers.

friends

As mentioned before, not all strangers are comfortable being addressed as friends, so reserve this one in most cases for your actual friends. And don’t miss the opportunity to develop your own very specific and highly informal terms of address for your friend group, such as sibs from different cribs (shout-out to whatever Tumblr user coined this one).

Speaking of highly informal terms of address, that brings us to a related question.

Here are 10 more ways to be more inclusive with your language.

Is dude gender-neutral?

Much like guys and you guys, the word dudes is often used to informally address friends regardless of gender. While the singular dude can be used this way, too, it’s more commonly used in a way similar to how the singular guy is often used—to specifically refer to a man or boy, as in I’ve never seen that dude before—who is he?

Because of this strong association, some people avoid using the words dude or dudes when addressing mixed-gender groups, especially those they don’t know. And using the phrase dudes and dudettes (with the female counterpart dudette) still has the problem of excluding nonbinary people in the same way that the phrases ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls do.

But don’t worry, there are options.

Gender-neutral alternatives for dude, bro, and similar terms

Some similar terms are buddy, pal, mate, champ, and boss. Though these are all gender-neutral, keep in mind that these have all been traditionally applied to men and boys, so some people might recoil at being referred to in these ways (apart from the obvious reason that such terms are intentionally over-the-top).

One alternative to using dude by itself is to substitute the word yo. It’s an interjection rather than a term of address, but it carries a lot of the same energy.

For example, instead of saying You missed it, dude! or You missed it, bro!, try saying You missed it, yo!

Bonus: yo can also be used to express the same subtle emotions that dude can—namely to indicate that you’re exasperated (Dude. Seriously. Stop. → Yo. Seriously. Stop.) or impressed (DUDE! → YO!).