you

English

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You

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

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 Danish I and archaic Swedish I.

Alternative forms

• 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)

Pronunciation

• (stressed)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: yo͞o, IPA^(key): /juː/ ^help,

    Audio

    (file)

  • (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

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.

   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.
   • 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 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.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     'Draw near, and wash you in the living flames, and take their virtue into your poor frames in all its virgin strength[.]'

   • 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.)
   • 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.)

   You are all supposed to do as I tell you.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Are you excited? ― Yes, I am excited!

     Audio (US)

     (file)

5. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.)
   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Mansfield Park: , volume II, London: T 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).
   • 2001 May 5, Polly Vernon, The Guardian:

     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

• 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" (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

• (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

Descendants

• 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

See also

Determiner

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

Translations

Verb

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, “Practicing”, in Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books:

     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

Etymology 2

Noun

you (plural yous)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter U.
   • 1969, Michael Feld, The Sabbatical Year, London: Alan Ross Ltd, page 301:

     ‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun! […]’

   • 2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 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."

   • 2019, Anand Ranganathan, Chitra Subramaniam, The Rat Eater, Bloomsbury India, →ISBN:

     ‘S-S-C…sitting on a tree…eff-you-cee-kay-i-en-ji.’

Alternative forms

• u

Derived terms

• doubleyou

References

Cameroon Pidgin

Alternative forms

• yu

Etymology

From English you.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ju/

Pronoun

you

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

See also

Japanese

Romanization

you

1. Rōmaji transcription of よう

See also

• yō (yō)

Karawa

Noun

you

1. water

References

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

Leonese

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronoun

you

1. I

See also

Mandarin

Romanization

you (you⁵／you⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄧㄡ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 喲／哟

Romanization

you

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

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script 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

Etymology 1

Pronoun

you

1. Alternative form of yow

Etymology 2

Pronoun

you

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

Mirandese

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jow/

Pronoun

you

1. I (the first-person singular pronoun)
   • 2008, “Ai que cochino!!! (ver. II)”, in Picä Tumilho (band) (music), Faíçca: Ua stória d'amor i laboura:

     I you cun muita fuorça spetei bien la faca

     And I strongly skewered (with) the knife.

Pouye

Noun

you

1. water

References

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

Takia

Etymology

Borrowed from Bargam yuw and Waskia yu.

Noun

you

1. water

References

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

Terebu

Noun

you

1. fire

Further reading

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