Y'all
All y'all
You
By Charles Layton
The plural form of I is we. The plural of he/she/it is they. But the plural form of you is just you.
Spanish changes usted to ustedes to make it plural. Most other European languages also have a separate plural form for “you.” But not English. We’re deprived.
When I joined the Army I’d never been north of the Texas-Oklahoma border, so I’d never heard anyone say youse before. When I got to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, a sergeant got on the company squawk box and bellowed, “I want youse to listen up!” This sounded so ignorant to me that I burst out laughing.
But I shouldn’t have. The sergeant was from Yankeeland, where some people said youse for the very legitimate purpose of specifying the plural. I should have understood that, coming from a part of the country where people said y’all 60 or 80 times a day.
In spite of all formal teachings to the contrary, we-uns in the South have always had this perfectly good, time-tested second-person plural pronoun, and we’ve put it to good use. Regardless of what some people think, y’all is correctly used only as a plural. I agree with the Urban Dictionary when it says, “Only an absolute idiot would use y’all as a singular pronoun.” In the South, when an individual customer enters a hardware store or diner or tractor dealership or bail bond agency, the clerk or hostess or salesperson or bondsman says, “Can I help you?” Not “Can I help y’all.”
Some Yankees get mixed up about this because they’ve heard Southerners say “all of y’all” or “all y’all” or “all a’ y’all,” as if y’all were the singular and all y’all the plural. But that’s wrong. Let me explain.
In my high school, the cheerleaders would exhort us at pep rallies: “ALL Y’ALL YELL!” Which was correct usage. One would not say “all y’all” when addressing two or three people. In that situation, the proper term is “y’all,” the simple plural. “All y’all” is the all-inclusive plural. It comes into play when the group being addressed is so large that one would want to spread one’s arms as a gesture of inclusivity. However, say you’re addressing five people, two of whom are going to the rodeo and three of whom are staying home. You’d say, “Y’all are going” addressing the two “and y’all are staying” addressing the other three. Only if all five were going would you say, “All y’all are going.”
So, you see, Southerners have evolved the usage of this friendly little pronoun to a highly nuanced state of sophistication. The North has nothing to compete with it. Northerners might say “you guys” in one of the above situations — or “youse guys” — but then the masculine guys is forced to apply to people of both sexes. Y’all, being gender neutral, avoids that awkwardness. Plus, y’all has an elegant, easy-to-use possessive form: “That’s none of y’all’s business.” “Where is y’all’s ammunition?” (The possessive of youse is pretty clumsy by comparison.)
Up here in Yankeeland, I almost never use the word y’all (or its more dignified and stately variant, you all), because up here y’all are so confused about it. But last month, when I was in Florida, I found myself reverting to y’all a time or two. And I have to say, it felt comfortable, like meeting a very close friend after a period of separation.
English once had a solid distinction between singular and plural forms. Thou was singular and you plural. But, for some reason, thou dropped out of usage except in formal public prayer and in Amish country. So then you occupied the singular position, doing double duty. When y’all came along, you gave up its original plural spot (in the South, that is) and became just singular. E pluribus unum.
In Yankeeland, you still plays a double role, and an ambiguous one. It doesn’t seem quite right.
Having spent my higher education years in the capital of the confederacy, beloved Richmond, I can tell you that y’all is pervasive but is generally understood to be the second choice, just like the “second place” trophies on Monument Avenue….this from the “carpetbagger”….fun article, Charles. It brought back a lot of good memories.
I grew up in Philadelphia and “youse” was not only acceptable but expected. Even the Sisters of St. Joseph, who staffed both elementary schools I attended, and the Sisters of St. Joseph, Religious Sisters of Mercy, and Grey Nuns who staffed my high school used it in speech, as they had all grown up locally. It was NOT, however, acceptable in written work or verbal recitation.
The colloquialism that caused me the most grief in my latter days of elementary school and early days of high school was calling a creek or steam a “crick.” My father is from Vermont, right outside Killington, and as a kid, we spent a lot of time fishing, swimming, and just having fun at township, county and state parks with lakes and feeder creeks, which, in my father’s New England slang, were “cricks.” (Word to the wise: if you have spent a lot of time swimming or tubing in rivers, lakes, or deep creeks, ask your doctor to do a simple blood test at your next check-up for a nasty bug called H. Pylori – it lives in non-chlorinated fresh water. In trying to kill my H. Pylori, I was given an antibiotic (Biaxin) to which I didn’t know I was allergic and it was game-on for storm onset rheumatoid.) I simply could not get past the crick/creek slang in elementary-school science and high school physical science and biology until my biology teacher told me to just call it a stream. That sunk in.
(And your original accent never dies; if I spend just a weekend in Philadelphia, everything I say goes right through my nose.)
The use of “you guys” to describe a group of women or a mixed group is, in my opinion, a terrorist act as it pertains to the English language. I see it as a plot by crazed feminists who are so eager to make women into men that they deny women their own gender name—women have to share “guys” with males.
Do people in the South say “guys and gals” or do they say “you guys?” I suspect the former. Maybe men and women in the South like the idea of viva la difference. The French sure do.
As you point out regarding the loss of a singular you (thou), evolution of language is not always an improvement. It’s like going to a concert where they say, “put your hands together” instead of “lets have a round of applause.”
Anyhoo…(a “word” that also annoys me) I think y’all have it right. Y’all is terrific and we should adopt it in Yankeeland. Now if you Southerners could just lose that ridiculous accent.
Oh thats a good one. well written and funny, too. A+
Absolutely loved this piece, Charles. And it’s so amusing to ‘hear’ you say “up here in Yankeeland.” You could take the boy out of the South…
My old High School gym teacher used youse all the time, such as, “I want ‘youse’ guys to pair off in ‘threes’ and do your exercises.” Absolutely true.
I went to college in TN and one of the English profs had a fine jar on her desk for improper singular use of y’all. She said, “If you insist on using it, use it properly.”
Y’all is a perfectly good word!! Correlating it to Spanish, it’s the same as vosotros or the more familiar plural of you or tu.’ I was taught ‘usted/ustedes’ is the more formal use of you.
I loved reading this article having grown up in SC but living in Jersey for 20 years. Y’all is such a needed word but I don’t feel comfortable using it up here.
In Yankeeland “yawl” is a small sailing vessel. Every regionalism makes perfect sense locally, and is puzzling out of context — that’s part of the charm. Y’all would get chuckles if youse asked where to pok the cah in Austin instead of Boston. Should Texans teach Jerseyites a lesson in how to speak second person plurals? Sorry, we’re not confused about it all, y’all.
Funniest post I’ve ever read on this site! While I’m from Maryland, I never heard ‘youse’ until I lived in NJ. It does allow one to zero in on where users are from. In my opinion, east of 287 and north of the AC expressway.
I have some Louisiana friends that use y’all as a replacement for you, singular or plural. You mentioned Florida, I winter in South Florida, and rarely hear y’all. I guess that is because most of us that live down here are transplanted northerners. Enjoyed your article.
So glad to see I am not the last person to use the pronoun ”one.”