all y'all
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See also: y'all
English
Etymology
From all + y'all (itself from you + all).
Pronoun
- (chiefly Southern US, redundant, pleonasm) Plural form of you.
- 1887, Thomas Nelson Page, In ole Virginia: or, Marse Chan, and other stories, page 160:
- Dyah dee come! Now watch 'em smile. All y'all jes stand back. Heah de one you lookin' for.
Usage notes
- All y'all is used in the Southern United States when a speaker wishes to include everyone being addressed. Y'all may refer to an indefinite set of members of a group, but all y'all definitively includes everyone in the group.
- Like y'all (see that entry's usage notes) and most other second-person plural pronouns, all y'all (and y'all all, which mirrors e.g. they all) can be said to one individual with an implied plural "and your group".
- This form of y'all can be considered incorrect in certain parts of the American South as being redundant.
- While "All y'all" is acceptable as either the subject or object in the structure of a sentence, the variant, "y'all all," should be used principally as the subject.
Alternative forms
Synonyms
- see the list of other second-person pronouns in you
Related terms
- all y'all's (possessive)
Determiner
- The group spoken or written to.
- Have all y'all ladies finished eating?