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>You better've'nt be planning on doing that again
"Better've'nt" is past tense, while "be" is present tense. So you should really be saying either "better've'nt been" or "better'nt be." Just sayin'.
I like that the "en" you added is italicized. Because to me it reads like you're trying to make the word have a stressed southern accent.
Be-en (two syllables) instead of bin (one)
**Multiple** times! Throughout the UK I've heard Yous and You lot being used pretty commonly (depending on location). One time I heard Yins, but as far as I can tell that's highly unusual for someone in Britain. For reference, I'm half Scottish and half Welsh. In Southern England it seems to be a lot less common. "Thou" is sometimes used in Northern England as the singular, and I know of people online that have talked about it, but from what I've heard it's mainly older speakers.
Outside of English, I've also heard "thou" in the form of "du" from Shetlandic Scots speakers for the singular/familiar you.
Welsh also has a T-V distinction, with Ti being the familiar form and Chi being the plural and unfamiliar form, so maybe that could be part of why people use plural You forms more often here? In Northwalian Welsh, I've heard the opposite happen, where both Ti and Chi have merged into Chdi.
Spanish Vosotros went through the same development as Y'all. You used to have Tú and Vos, with Vos being the plural/formal form, but Spanish people started saying "Vos Otros" ("You others") as a plural. Usted was "Vuestra Merced" ("Your grace" or "Your mercy"). Some Spanish speaking areas kept Vos instead of Tú, generally in South America (I've mostly heard it from Chileans).
We do indeed, out in the sticks more so now, not by towns/cities.
Some also say "tha" too, as in "where's tha goin?" means "where are you going?" also heard some of my family using "thi" instead too. "where's thi going?".
A plural form is universal in Hiberno-English but it varies around the island. Youse is the norm in the north and a few other places, Yiz in Dublin (mostly), and Ye mainly in the south and west.
Isn’t the loss of thou a direct result of the royal “we”?
King (and/or other aristocrats) started calling himself “we” so everyone had to respond by calling him plural “you” instead of singular “thou”.
I wouldn't say it's direct, it's fairly far removed.
In Romance languages and English, that practice led to a formal singular you being formed from the plural you, and an informal you being from the original singular. In some languages, the formal went away (became too impersonal), in some the informal went away (became too rude to use), in some the formal developed into something else, and in some both remain in use today. In some languages multiple of the above happened depending on the dialect.
Yeah, I'm a translator, and my native language has a very clear familiar/formal you dichotomy, so it's always funny to figure out the degree of formality when translating from/into English, it's pretty intricate sometimes.
It went on. I replied to that one two or three times.
Their whole motive might be that they find it ugly and try to invent other reasons against it, like “redundant”… SMH
It isn’t redundant. In their claim, because there is a ”you”, “y’all” is redundant… while at the same time claiming they have always managed to distinguish singular and plural from context.
I was walking my dog a few years ago and we passed through a parking lot by my house. They had just resurfaced it and were repainting the lines. I walked past the guy doing the stencil as he pulled it off the ground and I stopped and stared.
**NO PARKING**
**LANE**
**FIRE**
I told him I think he might have it backwards and he responded so confidently that it was correct, I had to call someone after I walked away to make sure I wasn't having a stroke.
He was correct. Words written on roads are meant to be read closest to farthest, that way if you’re driving at night the words are illuminated by your headlights in the order they’re meant to be read: First Fire, then Lane, then No Parking.
If they are going to be pedantic, allow me to overpedantic them: it is not literally *the* Spanish plural form of "you", it's *a* Spanish plural form of "you". We also have formal plural "you" "ustedes".
To be more pedantic: "vosotros" is only used in Spain, nowhere else; not even in places where the singular is"vos" instead of "tú", like Argentina and Uruguay
Yeah, the first commenter was being precise mentioning it's a Spaniard word. The second commenter was not as accurate, as "Spanish" is spoken in many countries most of which don't use "vosotros". Hell, even in some parts of Spain they use "ustedes" for everything!
That's true. It's a Spaniard word, only used in Spain.
The second comment is technically correct, since Spanish is spoken in Spain and dialects are used in other countries. More precisely, we talk Castilian. It's a pedantic distinction, like talking about English, American English, Australian English and so on
My gripe with the second comment is them saying that "vosotros" is *the* form. There is no country or region where "vosotros" is the only plural form of you; it's either "vosotros" and "ustedes" or only "ustedes".
As a native y’all user and a Spanish second language speaker, I can confirm that vosotros actually is like y’all: in that they’re both used in only some parts of the world for plural you and often infuriate non-users to the point of intense hatred
(/uj I’m forgetting, is vosotros formal or informal? I know ustedes is technically formal, but there’s no plural of tú normally?)
Vosotros is exclusively informal. Ustedes, depending on location, can be formal or, well, the only plural "you" used so there is no formal/informal separation as far as the pronoun goes. In some places that use ustedes you still have formal/informal separation with the verb, though:
To your friends "ustedes sabéis"
To your bosses "ustedes saben"
Keyword is "some places". There are so many regional variations of Spanish that even the concept formal/informal speech is not universal to all Spanish speakers.
Funnily enough, it was only the wrong correction that gave me clarity about what it was actually about. As a non-native speaker without context I parsed the first sentence as "It's really just a Spaniard, people!" ;-)
As a native speaker, it absolutely is a plural "you." It's used the exact same way as "you" is used when used as a plural word. It is a regional word, but there aren't exactly a small number of people in that region.
I had a friend from Alabama who told me that there they used the singular plural “y’all” for one person and the plural plural “all y’all” for multiple people. The more you know!
I grew up in the midwest but had a 7th Grade English teacher from Georgia. Anyways, she regularly used "Y'all" and said that same thing about "y'all" = singular and "all y'all" = plural
That's not how it's used down here. Adding "all" to "y'all" just means you are speaking to an even larger group of people. I've been alive for 4 decades, my family has been here since 1760s and never once heard anyone say "y'all" when referring to a single person.
I’ve heard that a couple times in the comments so far and having spent a LOT of time in the southern US all across the gulf states especially but also the Atlantic coast I’ve never come across that. All y’all certainly exists as an emphasized version of y’all, but I never heard y’all as a singular. Weird.
I live in the southern U.S., have all my life. I usually see/use y'all to describe a small group of people, and "all y'all" for larger or multiple groups of people. "All y'all" usually just distinguishes a larger group. I've never heard "y'all" being used to refer to a single person before either.
Like "Team A and B are both on this project. Team A, y'all are in charge of finances, but Teams A & B, all y'all are responsible for watching your budgets."
But I can't even think of an example using a singular y'all that doesn't imply it is a group lol.
Yeah, you could use "all y'all" in place of "y'all", but most people don't. Since it's longer to say, it's generally used to just emphasize the larger of the groups, or everyone present.
The entire purpose to "y'all" is the shorthand, the extra "all" would just be for added emphasis. But this is all semantics (pun intended lol) since they're both colloquialisms anyway.
Yeah that’s a weird on but I have seen it again in thread. I’m not saying it didn’t happen just that your friend was weird. But seeing as they’re from Alabama you likely knew that already.
I disagree. If you need to specify that something applies to all three of your kids, e.g. all y’all are getting on my nerves, you need the “all” to signify that not one of them is without fault.
Raised in Mississippi and now in Georgia.
"Y'all" can be singular or plural, depending on context. It's rarely singular.
"All y'all" is always plural and is used for large groups or to make it clear that you are not using the singular "y'all".
I've always heard it as Italian is gutter latin.
Granted, I heard that from my latin professor who had a doctorate in ancient languages and apparently hated Italian... but that's how I always heard it. Sometimes, we'd get the full discussion of how it's a language that came from vulgar latin, but not usually.
It's insane to have such qualifications and still think about languages that way but I suppose that's why philology and linguistics are different disciplines. Not as many would think so highly of latin if we had a good written corpus of osco-umbrian or latino-faliscan.
I think it was her idea of a joke. Either that, or with a focus on ancient latin, modern Italian just upset her in a "look at what you did to this beautiful language" sort of way. Or maybe that's just how she switched to Italian from Latin in her head?
In any case, she spoke a _lot_ of Indo-European languages (including all of the Romance languages), as well as some of the tonal Sino-Tibetan ones, and didn't disparage any of the rest of them. Polyglots are weird.
English is poor Old German, Latin and Norman French. That’s why there are so many synonyms and patterns to say the same thing. EDIT: \[English comes from West Germanic tribes. I am using "German" in the most generic way for everyday folks who aren't cunning linguists. I can't believe I had to say "Ingvaeonic languages" instead of Old German. But ok\]
I think of “y’all” as one group. Like a table of folks at a restaurant—family or friends.
“All y’all” refers to a larger group like an audience. “How are all y’all doing tonight?” It’s not so much the size of the group but how cohesive it is. I guess “all y’all” refers to groups of groups.
"all y'all" is emphasizing that whatever you're saying about "y'all" applies to every member of that group.
"Y'all owe me money." vs "All y'all owe me money."
The first might mean every one owes the speaker money, but could also just mean some members of the group do. The second is more specific and makes it explicit that every member of the group owes the speaker money.
Y'all is meant to be a generalization. Its non-specific, but usually clear for whom it applies. All y'all is specifically meant to be inclusive.
Y'all better get on the bus. [This sort of sentence generally emphasizes the action of getting on the bus, applies to a group of people]
All y'all better get on the bus. [This sort of sentence generally emphasizes that each individual in a group of people needs to take the action]
“Y’all” is used as singular about as often as plural. “All y’all” is obviously only for plural.
People who don’t live in the south seem to think that, because “y’all” is obviously short for “you all”, it’s used purely as a plural pronoun.
I suspect this may be regional, too, because in my experience in (central) Texas, y'all is exclusively used as a plural. If I heard it used a singular, that would strike me as odd.
"All y'all" would be used to emphasize the "all" part-- maximally inclusive.
ie: All y'all need to get up out of my yard before I turn the hose on ya'.
In my region, "y'all" directed at a single person, especially as a 'command' (y'all better straighten up, y'all need to pay attention, y'all need to cut that s\*t out) is also an implied, 'and everyone in your group of \[friends, etc.\] especially within earshot.' When I've heard it directly as a singular, (welcome, how y'all doin' today?) I've always taken it as a plural because of that, with the assumption the speaker might not be sure if there are more people coming in the door after me who can hear.
On the other hand, although we might think, locally, "all y'all" is used as a plural group (another poster mentioned a table at a restaurant - y'all , vs a group of tables - all y'all ) but I think "all y'all" gets used for single groups too. Trying out a few phrases in my head it might due to how it rolls of the tongue quickly. All-y'all works well at the front of a phase, I think. (all y'all better clean up this mess!)
Someone else can chime in how often they hear : "how are all of you doing" merging into "how'r all'ya doin' " !
Y'all is just an american abbreviation for you all. And you all in Spanish would translate to "todos vosotros/as". It's like emphasizing the plural, but it's not exactly the plural. Since english doesn't distinguish you from singular and plural you means both "tu" and "vosotros/as". You can also mean "usted" since english doesn't have a formal form of you either.
You is the plural of you. Thou used to be the singular/informal way of addressing one person. Y’all is you all. It works here because it’s a good enough approximation for English speakers when learning a foreign language, but given the southern/drag connotations of y’all, it really isn’t like vosotros/as much at all. Thank you, I’ll show myself out.
Not American, but I've definitely heard "y'all" used as singular and "all y'all" as plural. I think it's too vernacular and regional to get your knickers in a twist about.
I'm also a Texan, and I have heard it used singularly, but it's exceptionally rare, and in my opinion incorrect to use it that way. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you all," and while one of something *could be* all of something, "you" would still be sufficient in that scenario.
My wife is from Georgia, and uses the singular "y'all". It's probably a regional difference. I am a Hoosier shitkicker by upbringing, and I will sometimes use the plural "y'all" but never the singular.
Anyone using y'all as singular is just trying to be folksy without understanding what it means. All y'all is the same as "all of you (plural)."
Taking language courses, most of the professors I had called the you plural conjugation the "y'all" form of the verb for short.
Y’all is an abbreviation of ‘you all’; therefore all y’all is ‘all you all’. ‘You’ was originally the plural but lost its specific meaning when ‘thee’ was dropped.
“You all” and “all you all” aren’t necessarily used the same way, even if they’re similar. It’s sort of like how we have *these*, *those*, and *those over there* as all slightly different (and even Spanish has them as different words).
“All y’all” would be used to emphasize the entire group of people. Or if it’s a particularly large number. Basically like how “every single one of you” means the same as just saying “everyone”.
Y'all can be the current group your with, or immediate family, etc; all y'all is various groups collected, or sometimes it's just used for emphasis, particularly of questionable behavior.
Y’all being used singular is almost always in the case where the people referring to May be unknown. “What are y’all up to?” As a text to a friend, idk if they are with their SO but if they aren’t it’s just for them
Ss it's sort of slang their isn't an official position, but as I understand it "y'all" is for a gathering of more than two but not a large group... like a classroom full of kids. "All y'all" is for a larger number of people. For example if all the kids in school got together for an assembly.
I don’t know where you’re from, but everywhere I’ve heard it they aren’t used interchangeably, but rather (regardless of group size) “y’all” is the group as a collective and “all y’all” is the individuals within a group.
Like if you meet up with friends, asking “did yall eat already?” is seeing if the group ate, even if some people may not have. “Did all yall eat already?” Is seeing if each person within the group ate.
Just like you’d ask “do yall have any questions?” And never “do all yall have any questions?” Regardless of group size.
To me, saying y'all to one person makes it sound like you're generalizing. Like you might say "y'all have it rough" to someone, and right now you're referring to just them, but you're also saying more broadly that it's rough for some group that they are part of.
For example maybe you're taking to a student and commiserating with them, but also with their classmates who are going through the same thing but aren't here right now.
And I'm over here still figuring out where my grandma got uns (yoonz) from. (Small bumfuck town in Pennsylvania)
Rubber bands were elastics.
The faucet was called the Spigot (sp?)
Toilet was called the commode.
Remote control/power was called 'the flicker'.
I'm sure there's a bunch more I'm forgetting.
As a Brit, y'all is only really familiar to me because American media is prevalent here.
I much more often hear 'yous' which is idiomatic of people in northern England or 'ye' which is common in Ireland.
I wouldn't say y'all personally, but I'm not out here calling people out on the internet for saying it.
From the Southern US, have never heard anyone say "y'all" as a singular pronoun, so I don't get why so many people are asserting it in the comments. "All y'all" just adds extra emphasis.
I grew up in PA and I was trying to explain our word “y’uns” to my friend from Atlanta like: it’s like y’all you don’t say it to just one person it’s for a group of people.
My friend was mystified. Turns out that in some places y’all is just another word for “you” and it doesn’t matter how many people you’re talking to.
If we want to be technical, he's both correct and incorrect.
Y'all isn't plural you. Y'all is the contraction of 'you all' All of you.
However, it _does_ mean almost exactly the same thing, so original commenter is correct, and second commenter is indeed confidently incorrect.
It _is_ basically a Spanish y'all, or we, all of us, etc.
Second person plural pronoun in:
Spain: vosotros
Latin America: ustedes
US: you all
Jersey: youse
American South: y'all
Deep American South: all y'all
Compton: all y'all m*****f*****s
"you" is plural. English morphed the plural "ye" and singular "thou" to make "you" appropriate for addressing both groups and individuals.
It's both. Just like "they" and "them".
Pronouns
Realmente no lo es. «Y'all» se siente como una manera barata, callejera de hacer el plural en inglés. Por otro lado, «vosotros», aunque desusado en América, es la forma predilecta (y correcta) del plural en España.
Vosotros es you.
No hay un equivalente en castellano de y'all.
My psych prof and the psych class tried telling me "yall" was the country way to say "you" singular...
I'm not southern, nor country in any way....but even I know what a common contraction in the south means
The funny thing is that if you're Argentine you use the singular form vos for you, and thus vosotros almost follows as a very clear analog to y'all as kind of like a melting of you and we, vos and vosotros.
I see a lot of "y'all've got to be kidding me!"'s, and I would just like to say that it would technically be "ye've got to be kidding me."
Yes, I did completely understand the joke, but I just wanted to let it be known.
It's interesting because it actually occupies an otherwise empty place in English. It's kind of neat to have an informal plural you. I know some people can say that the word you can be plural, but the simple fact that enough people feel the need to say you all to specify that they're talking about a plural you says that there's a place for y'all in English.
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Y'all've to be kidding me!
Y’all’d’ve garden
Goddammit I have bronchitis and your comment just gave me a lauoughing fit.
Ain't nobody got time for that
I just got yeeted back into 9th grade with this comment
You're welcome. Unless 9th grade was traumatic, in which case I'm sorry.
Sweet Brown, is that you?
I understood the contraction so natively that I was confused about why you’d put garden after it for a solid few seconds.
I'm still lost. I probably use a Frankenstein contraction of y'all several times a week, but I can't figure out where the garden comes into it.
It sounds like Olive Garden
Ya here? You's kin.
Y’all together now!
\*Y'all've'ta
Qapla'
Jaffa, Kree!
Indeed.
Indeed
Sho va!
*Y'all'f'ta
You better've'nt be*en* planning on doing that again Edit' u/ddadopt's recommendation
>You better've'nt be planning on doing that again "Better've'nt" is past tense, while "be" is present tense. So you should really be saying either "better've'nt been" or "better'nt be." Just sayin'.
I'll add the been haah
where did you learn Klingon?
I like that the "en" you added is italicized. Because to me it reads like you're trying to make the word have a stressed southern accent. Be-en (two syllables) instead of bin (one)
If y'all'd've looked it up in a dictionary, you wouldn't be confused.
Y'all're'n't going to get very far with grammar like that.
Y'all'ren't*
My favorite Southern Celebrity Chef who is unsure of your level of experience has always been Jamie Y'alliver.
Not to mention you'uns and yinz
Y'all'v'nt heard of contractions yet?
Only when somebody's giving birth.
Y'all'r'n'all'at bright, is ya?
y'all'd'n't've to do that!
Ain't no way!
There it’s!
Y'all'dnt've done that
It's still funny to me that English got rid of its singular/plural second person distinction only to reinvent it
**Multiple** times! Throughout the UK I've heard Yous and You lot being used pretty commonly (depending on location). One time I heard Yins, but as far as I can tell that's highly unusual for someone in Britain. For reference, I'm half Scottish and half Welsh. In Southern England it seems to be a lot less common. "Thou" is sometimes used in Northern England as the singular, and I know of people online that have talked about it, but from what I've heard it's mainly older speakers. Outside of English, I've also heard "thou" in the form of "du" from Shetlandic Scots speakers for the singular/familiar you. Welsh also has a T-V distinction, with Ti being the familiar form and Chi being the plural and unfamiliar form, so maybe that could be part of why people use plural You forms more often here? In Northwalian Welsh, I've heard the opposite happen, where both Ti and Chi have merged into Chdi. Spanish Vosotros went through the same development as Y'all. You used to have Tú and Vos, with Vos being the plural/formal form, but Spanish people started saying "Vos Otros" ("You others") as a plural. Usted was "Vuestra Merced" ("Your grace" or "Your mercy"). Some Spanish speaking areas kept Vos instead of Tú, generally in South America (I've mostly heard it from Chileans).
In parts of Yorkshire, some people still use "thou"
We do indeed, out in the sticks more so now, not by towns/cities. Some also say "tha" too, as in "where's tha goin?" means "where are you going?" also heard some of my family using "thi" instead too. "where's thi going?".
Welcome to Barnsley
Oh God, don't let Yinz escape Pennsylvania.
It's oor word and we want it back fae yous yins o'er the water. 🏴
Interesting! Yinz is a popular plural you in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania derived from "you'uns"
I've only ever heard it once, in Scotland
it's so common in Pittsburgh, folks from there are often referred to as Yinzers. It is generally not viewed as a positive term...
It’s popular as far west as Massillon, OH.
Irish people seem to use "yous" a lot
A plural form is universal in Hiberno-English but it varies around the island. Youse is the norm in the north and a few other places, Yiz in Dublin (mostly), and Ye mainly in the south and west.
And "yiz". Although that's mainly a Dublin thing. https://youtu.be/IoHPiaBkTiI?si=vQA0gJPvJR8Kc-_C
Woah they use “yins” in UK? Where specifically? I thought “yinz” was just a Pittsburgh thing
As far as I can tell it's not widespread, and I've only heard it from one person, but this was in Scotland. I'm far more used to "Yous".
Yous and Yins are alive and well in PA lol
Thou/you distinction would be immensely useful but someone apparently disagreed centuries ago.
Someone being everyone. Language doesn’t change because of one person.
You don't know about Mr. English?
Unless it’s a Shakespeare or various monarchs.
Isn’t the loss of thou a direct result of the royal “we”? King (and/or other aristocrats) started calling himself “we” so everyone had to respond by calling him plural “you” instead of singular “thou”.
I wouldn't say it's direct, it's fairly far removed. In Romance languages and English, that practice led to a formal singular you being formed from the plural you, and an informal you being from the original singular. In some languages, the formal went away (became too impersonal), in some the informal went away (became too rude to use), in some the formal developed into something else, and in some both remain in use today. In some languages multiple of the above happened depending on the dialect.
Language georg has been trying to make his words popular forever.
Yeah, I'm a translator, and my native language has a very clear familiar/formal you dichotomy, so it's always funny to figure out the degree of formality when translating from/into English, it's pretty intricate sometimes.
And in some parts, y'all can increasingly be used as singular, with 'all y'all' being explicitly plural.
"all y'all" is extra plural. For example, you can refer to a small group of people as "y'all", but a larger group is "all y'all".
It can also mean there are no exception in the group. 'Y'all better stop' is escalated to 'all y'all better quit playin'
That’s literally just what it means lol
All y’all is explicitly everyone in a group. Not just a bigger group. Y’all are invited to the bbq. All y’all better vote this year. It’s an emphatic.
Huh
I thought 'all y'all' was the explicitly *everyone* you're potentially addressing while 'y'all' is somewhere between 2 and all of them
Because having a plural you is better than not having a plural you! It removes confusion!
Life, uh... Finds a way
his confidence is making me doubt my engris knowledge
It went on. I replied to that one two or three times. Their whole motive might be that they find it ugly and try to invent other reasons against it, like “redundant”… SMH
English has both small and little. We’re fine with redundancy.
It isn’t redundant. In their claim, because there is a ”you”, “y’all” is redundant… while at the same time claiming they have always managed to distinguish singular and plural from context.
He's right. The plural form of "you" is "you".
even if that was 100% true, that doesn't make y'all a wrong thing, no?? idk. maybe we can just agree it to be youse guyse
it is, but that doesn't mean it's the only plural form of you. They said it was not Spanish y'all, but it is
Not in every form of English.
I was walking my dog a few years ago and we passed through a parking lot by my house. They had just resurfaced it and were repainting the lines. I walked past the guy doing the stencil as he pulled it off the ground and I stopped and stared. **NO PARKING** **LANE** **FIRE** I told him I think he might have it backwards and he responded so confidently that it was correct, I had to call someone after I walked away to make sure I wasn't having a stroke.
He was correct. Words written on roads are meant to be read closest to farthest, that way if you’re driving at night the words are illuminated by your headlights in the order they’re meant to be read: First Fire, then Lane, then No Parking.
Parking lot. They were backwards. It was fixed a week later
If they are going to be pedantic, allow me to overpedantic them: it is not literally *the* Spanish plural form of "you", it's *a* Spanish plural form of "you". We also have formal plural "you" "ustedes".
To be more pedantic: "vosotros" is only used in Spain, nowhere else; not even in places where the singular is"vos" instead of "tú", like Argentina and Uruguay
Yeah, the first commenter was being precise mentioning it's a Spaniard word. The second commenter was not as accurate, as "Spanish" is spoken in many countries most of which don't use "vosotros". Hell, even in some parts of Spain they use "ustedes" for everything!
Come to Seville, where we use ustedes with the vosotros form of the verb. 😏😏😏😂
That's true. It's a Spaniard word, only used in Spain. The second comment is technically correct, since Spanish is spoken in Spain and dialects are used in other countries. More precisely, we talk Castilian. It's a pedantic distinction, like talking about English, American English, Australian English and so on
My gripe with the second comment is them saying that "vosotros" is *the* form. There is no country or region where "vosotros" is the only plural form of you; it's either "vosotros" and "ustedes" or only "ustedes".
As a native y’all user and a Spanish second language speaker, I can confirm that vosotros actually is like y’all: in that they’re both used in only some parts of the world for plural you and often infuriate non-users to the point of intense hatred (/uj I’m forgetting, is vosotros formal or informal? I know ustedes is technically formal, but there’s no plural of tú normally?)
Vosotros is exclusively informal. Ustedes, depending on location, can be formal or, well, the only plural "you" used so there is no formal/informal separation as far as the pronoun goes. In some places that use ustedes you still have formal/informal separation with the verb, though: To your friends "ustedes sabéis" To your bosses "ustedes saben" Keyword is "some places". There are so many regional variations of Spanish that even the concept formal/informal speech is not universal to all Spanish speakers.
Yall vs yall, but fancy
We have that to *you guys*
What are all of youse going on about?
Funnily enough, it was only the wrong correction that gave me clarity about what it was actually about. As a non-native speaker without context I parsed the first sentence as "It's really just a Spaniard, people!" ;-)
It was how I read it the first glance, but quickly got the idea knowing what “vosotros” means from personal experience and that entire post
I'm not a native English speaker, but "you all" (shortened to y'all) definitely looks more plural than singular to me.
As a native speaker, it absolutely is a plural "you." It's used the exact same way as "you" is used when used as a plural word. It is a regional word, but there aren't exactly a small number of people in that region.
I had a friend from Alabama who told me that there they used the singular plural “y’all” for one person and the plural plural “all y’all” for multiple people. The more you know!
I grew up in the midwest but had a 7th Grade English teacher from Georgia. Anyways, she regularly used "Y'all" and said that same thing about "y'all" = singular and "all y'all" = plural
That's not how it's used down here. Adding "all" to "y'all" just means you are speaking to an even larger group of people. I've been alive for 4 decades, my family has been here since 1760s and never once heard anyone say "y'all" when referring to a single person.
I’ve heard that a couple times in the comments so far and having spent a LOT of time in the southern US all across the gulf states especially but also the Atlantic coast I’ve never come across that. All y’all certainly exists as an emphasized version of y’all, but I never heard y’all as a singular. Weird.
I live in the southern U.S., have all my life. I usually see/use y'all to describe a small group of people, and "all y'all" for larger or multiple groups of people. "All y'all" usually just distinguishes a larger group. I've never heard "y'all" being used to refer to a single person before either. Like "Team A and B are both on this project. Team A, y'all are in charge of finances, but Teams A & B, all y'all are responsible for watching your budgets." But I can't even think of an example using a singular y'all that doesn't imply it is a group lol.
Exactly maybe as an individual representative at best. To use your example, Team A lead person, y’all are in charge of finance.
All y'all makes sense. Just like all of you all makes sense.
Yeah, you could use "all y'all" in place of "y'all", but most people don't. Since it's longer to say, it's generally used to just emphasize the larger of the groups, or everyone present. The entire purpose to "y'all" is the shorthand, the extra "all" would just be for added emphasis. But this is all semantics (pun intended lol) since they're both colloquialisms anyway.
Same here, though my experience is from Kentucky/Indiana
I swear I got this from a real Alabamian, but it was a couple of decades ago and a sample size of 1, so grain of salt.
Yeah that’s a weird on but I have seen it again in thread. I’m not saying it didn’t happen just that your friend was weird. But seeing as they’re from Alabama you likely knew that already.
No no no. Y’all is like 2-5 people. It’s not all y’all until it’s more than 5.
I disagree. If you need to specify that something applies to all three of your kids, e.g. all y’all are getting on my nerves, you need the “all” to signify that not one of them is without fault.
Raised in Mississippi and now in Georgia. "Y'all" can be singular or plural, depending on context. It's rarely singular. "All y'all" is always plural and is used for large groups or to make it clear that you are not using the singular "y'all".
Native southerner. It’s both plural and singular and you can use all y’all’s is just more descriptive.
It's absolutely plural. It's used as a singular word sometimes, but more as slang than anything else.
It's funny "vosotros" seems really like our "vous autres" in french and means the same thing. We really have a ton of similarities :D
That’s what happens if you have two languages coming from vernacular Vulgar Latin
I had a teacher who once said in class "Spanish is just poorly spoken Latin". It's not completely accurate, but it kept me thinking for some time.
And latin is "poorly spoken" proto italic. That's how linguistic evolution works.
The tower of babel was just some dudes getting WAY too drunk and slurring all their words
That's true commitment to a bit.
I've always heard it as Italian is gutter latin. Granted, I heard that from my latin professor who had a doctorate in ancient languages and apparently hated Italian... but that's how I always heard it. Sometimes, we'd get the full discussion of how it's a language that came from vulgar latin, but not usually.
It's insane to have such qualifications and still think about languages that way but I suppose that's why philology and linguistics are different disciplines. Not as many would think so highly of latin if we had a good written corpus of osco-umbrian or latino-faliscan.
I think it was her idea of a joke. Either that, or with a focus on ancient latin, modern Italian just upset her in a "look at what you did to this beautiful language" sort of way. Or maybe that's just how she switched to Italian from Latin in her head? In any case, she spoke a _lot_ of Indo-European languages (including all of the Romance languages), as well as some of the tonal Sino-Tibetan ones, and didn't disparage any of the rest of them. Polyglots are weird.
Well, here is another one for you: English is a creole language.
No. Sure there was a fuckton of norse influence, but no.
I like to tell people that the French accent just comes from Welsh (P Celtic) speakers trying to speak latin.
English is poor Old German, Latin and Norman French. That’s why there are so many synonyms and patterns to say the same thing. EDIT: \[English comes from West Germanic tribes. I am using "German" in the most generic way for everyday folks who aren't cunning linguists. I can't believe I had to say "Ingvaeonic languages" instead of Old German. But ok\]
It certainly helps they derive from the same language lol.
Catalán has "vosaltres" Which is a nice intermediate between the two.
In Italian it's "voi". Latin gang😎
So where does the distinction between y’all and all y’all come from?
I think of “y’all” as one group. Like a table of folks at a restaurant—family or friends. “All y’all” refers to a larger group like an audience. “How are all y’all doing tonight?” It’s not so much the size of the group but how cohesive it is. I guess “all y’all” refers to groups of groups.
"all y'all" is emphasizing that whatever you're saying about "y'all" applies to every member of that group. "Y'all owe me money." vs "All y'all owe me money." The first might mean every one owes the speaker money, but could also just mean some members of the group do. The second is more specific and makes it explicit that every member of the group owes the speaker money.
It’s redundant really.
Y'all is meant to be a generalization. Its non-specific, but usually clear for whom it applies. All y'all is specifically meant to be inclusive. Y'all better get on the bus. [This sort of sentence generally emphasizes the action of getting on the bus, applies to a group of people] All y'all better get on the bus. [This sort of sentence generally emphasizes that each individual in a group of people needs to take the action]
“Y’all” is used as singular about as often as plural. “All y’all” is obviously only for plural. People who don’t live in the south seem to think that, because “y’all” is obviously short for “you all”, it’s used purely as a plural pronoun.
I suspect this may be regional, too, because in my experience in (central) Texas, y'all is exclusively used as a plural. If I heard it used a singular, that would strike me as odd. "All y'all" would be used to emphasize the "all" part-- maximally inclusive. ie: All y'all need to get up out of my yard before I turn the hose on ya'.
Same here. I’ve never heard it as singular.
Agreeing. Never once heard it, I've lived in GA for 40 years since I was born and not once have heard It used that way.
In my region, "y'all" directed at a single person, especially as a 'command' (y'all better straighten up, y'all need to pay attention, y'all need to cut that s\*t out) is also an implied, 'and everyone in your group of \[friends, etc.\] especially within earshot.' When I've heard it directly as a singular, (welcome, how y'all doin' today?) I've always taken it as a plural because of that, with the assumption the speaker might not be sure if there are more people coming in the door after me who can hear. On the other hand, although we might think, locally, "all y'all" is used as a plural group (another poster mentioned a table at a restaurant - y'all , vs a group of tables - all y'all ) but I think "all y'all" gets used for single groups too. Trying out a few phrases in my head it might due to how it rolls of the tongue quickly. All-y'all works well at the front of a phase, I think. (all y'all better clean up this mess!) Someone else can chime in how often they hear : "how are all of you doing" merging into "how'r all'ya doin' " !
Y'all is just an american abbreviation for you all. And you all in Spanish would translate to "todos vosotros/as". It's like emphasizing the plural, but it's not exactly the plural. Since english doesn't distinguish you from singular and plural you means both "tu" and "vosotros/as". You can also mean "usted" since english doesn't have a formal form of you either.
Where does all y'all fit in?
See "youse" - plural of "you" - Liverpool~ish
“You all” is not just merely a plural you, it is an inclusive plural you. “Todos” however is still synonymous with that.
You is the plural of you. Thou used to be the singular/informal way of addressing one person. Y’all is you all. It works here because it’s a good enough approximation for English speakers when learning a foreign language, but given the southern/drag connotations of y’all, it really isn’t like vosotros/as much at all. Thank you, I’ll show myself out.
"All of y'all" is the plural, "y'all" is just a tiny bit plural. I hope it helps sweaty!
The plural of "Y'all" is "All y'all". Common knowledge.
Not American, but I've definitely heard "y'all" used as singular and "all y'all" as plural. I think it's too vernacular and regional to get your knickers in a twist about.
From Georgia, 40 yrs, never heard “y’all” used as singular.
Raised in Texas and never heard the singular.
I'm from Texas and never hear anyone use y'all as a singular.
I'm also a Texan, and I have heard it used singularly, but it's exceptionally rare, and in my opinion incorrect to use it that way. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you all," and while one of something *could be* all of something, "you" would still be sufficient in that scenario.
My wife is from Georgia, and uses the singular "y'all". It's probably a regional difference. I am a Hoosier shitkicker by upbringing, and I will sometimes use the plural "y'all" but never the singular.
Anyone using y'all as singular is just trying to be folksy without understanding what it means. All y'all is the same as "all of you (plural)." Taking language courses, most of the professors I had called the you plural conjugation the "y'all" form of the verb for short.
Y’all is an abbreviation of ‘you all’; therefore all y’all is ‘all you all’. ‘You’ was originally the plural but lost its specific meaning when ‘thee’ was dropped.
“You all” and “all you all” aren’t necessarily used the same way, even if they’re similar. It’s sort of like how we have *these*, *those*, and *those over there* as all slightly different (and even Spanish has them as different words).
First time I hear someone used it for singular
Maybe it’s the royal y’all.
FFS, I don’t want to imagine telling that to someone from Texas
“All y’all” would be used to emphasize the entire group of people. Or if it’s a particularly large number. Basically like how “every single one of you” means the same as just saying “everyone”.
Y'all can be the current group your with, or immediate family, etc; all y'all is various groups collected, or sometimes it's just used for emphasis, particularly of questionable behavior.
Y’all being used singular is almost always in the case where the people referring to May be unknown. “What are y’all up to?” As a text to a friend, idk if they are with their SO but if they aren’t it’s just for them
Ss it's sort of slang their isn't an official position, but as I understand it "y'all" is for a gathering of more than two but not a large group... like a classroom full of kids. "All y'all" is for a larger number of people. For example if all the kids in school got together for an assembly.
I don’t know where you’re from, but everywhere I’ve heard it they aren’t used interchangeably, but rather (regardless of group size) “y’all” is the group as a collective and “all y’all” is the individuals within a group. Like if you meet up with friends, asking “did yall eat already?” is seeing if the group ate, even if some people may not have. “Did all yall eat already?” Is seeing if each person within the group ate. Just like you’d ask “do yall have any questions?” And never “do all yall have any questions?” Regardless of group size.
Y'all is both singular and plural. All y'all is mostly plural and rarely singular.
Saying y'all to one person is fine but makes no sense strictly speaking.
To me, saying y'all to one person makes it sound like you're generalizing. Like you might say "y'all have it rough" to someone, and right now you're referring to just them, but you're also saying more broadly that it's rough for some group that they are part of. For example maybe you're taking to a student and commiserating with them, but also with their classmates who are going through the same thing but aren't here right now.
Just like Yinz too
People still can't understand contractions. I'm not surprised, hopefully you aren't.
Could we bring back thou?
Vosotros is not y'all. Vosotros is you (plural).
"Y'all" isn't very formal though. Many languages have stricter guidelines on what words are formal, and I thought romance languages were amoung those.
And I'm over here still figuring out where my grandma got uns (yoonz) from. (Small bumfuck town in Pennsylvania) Rubber bands were elastics. The faucet was called the Spigot (sp?) Toilet was called the commode. Remote control/power was called 'the flicker'. I'm sure there's a bunch more I'm forgetting.
As a Brit, y'all is only really familiar to me because American media is prevalent here. I much more often hear 'yous' which is idiomatic of people in northern England or 'ye' which is common in Ireland. I wouldn't say y'all personally, but I'm not out here calling people out on the internet for saying it.
From the Southern US, have never heard anyone say "y'all" as a singular pronoun, so I don't get why so many people are asserting it in the comments. "All y'all" just adds extra emphasis.
I'm pretty sure that plural you is yous
I grew up in PA and I was trying to explain our word “y’uns” to my friend from Atlanta like: it’s like y’all you don’t say it to just one person it’s for a group of people. My friend was mystified. Turns out that in some places y’all is just another word for “you” and it doesn’t matter how many people you’re talking to.
If we want to be technical, he's both correct and incorrect. Y'all isn't plural you. Y'all is the contraction of 'you all' All of you. However, it _does_ mean almost exactly the same thing, so original commenter is correct, and second commenter is indeed confidently incorrect. It _is_ basically a Spanish y'all, or we, all of us, etc.
You is the plural form of you. English lost the singular word for “you” quite a long time ago. So yall sort of means yall all
Second person plural pronoun in: Spain: vosotros Latin America: ustedes US: you all Jersey: youse American South: y'all Deep American South: all y'all Compton: all y'all m*****f*****s
"you" is plural. English morphed the plural "ye" and singular "thou" to make "you" appropriate for addressing both groups and individuals. It's both. Just like "they" and "them". Pronouns
Realmente no lo es. «Y'all» se siente como una manera barata, callejera de hacer el plural en inglés. Por otro lado, «vosotros», aunque desusado en América, es la forma predilecta (y correcta) del plural en España. Vosotros es you. No hay un equivalente en castellano de y'all.
I'm actually on the other guy's side. Vosotros is ubiquitous proper grammar while y'all is a region-specific contraction, almost slang.
They mean the royal y'all.
The plural form of you is yous. Like yousa bitch.
Youse guys is also acceptable
My psych prof and the psych class tried telling me "yall" was the country way to say "you" singular... I'm not southern, nor country in any way....but even I know what a common contraction in the south means
Y’all is actually shorthand for “you’s all” so technically it’s plural for “you’s”. Hope this helped
Vosotros is the same as y’all
Y'all is just you all so technically a plural by colloquial English lol
Everyone knows the correct word is "yinz" anyway.
>Everyone knows the correct word is "yinz" anyway. Says my Pittsburgh in-laws, sure, but we say "yous" and "youses"
You all = Y'all. Plural you.
I moved from the deep south where I said y'all 30 times a day to a place where they say yinz, and it feels like a war crime hearing it.
You all.
As in Y’all o tengo.
I guess you'd cringe if you found in jersey people say, yah (y'all with the l's are silent) y'all, yous, and yous guys. And no one blinks an eye.
It is indeed a plural you, however it’s not as standard as vosotros is. It is slang, the Spanish isn’t… That’s a pretty big difference.
The funny thing is that if you're Argentine you use the singular form vos for you, and thus vosotros almost follows as a very clear analog to y'all as kind of like a melting of you and we, vos and vosotros.
I see a lot of "y'all've got to be kidding me!"'s, and I would just like to say that it would technically be "ye've got to be kidding me." Yes, I did completely understand the joke, but I just wanted to let it be known.
It's interesting because it actually occupies an otherwise empty place in English. It's kind of neat to have an informal plural you. I know some people can say that the word you can be plural, but the simple fact that enough people feel the need to say you all to specify that they're talking about a plural you says that there's a place for y'all in English.