you
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.
ye (archaic nominative, dialectal plural)
ya, yah, yer, yeh, y', yo, yu, yuh (eye dialect or informal)
yoo (eye dialect)
yew (eye dialect or obsolete)
-cha (informal, after /t/)
-ja (informal, after /d/)
u (Internet, informal)
yuo (Internet, ironic)
youe, yow, yowe (obsolete)
(stressed)
(Received Pronunciation) enPR: yo͞o, IPA(key): /juː/
(General American) enPR: yo͞o, IPA(key): /ju/
(General Australian) enPR: yo͞o, IPA(key): /jʉː/
(Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA(key): /jʉ/
Rhymes: -uː
(unstressed)
(Received Pronunciation) enPR: yo͞o, IPA(key): /ju/
(General American, General Australian) enPR: yə, IPA(key): /jə/
Homophones: ewe, u, yew, yu, (h-dropping) hew, (h-dropping) hue
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?).
you (second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective, possessive determiner your, possessive pronoun yours, singular reflexive yourself, plural reflexive yourselves)
(object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object. [from 9th c.]
(reflexive, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. [from 9th c.]
(object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) [from 13th c.]
(subject pronoun) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.) [from 14th c.]
You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
Are you excited? ― Yes, I am excited!
(subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) [from 15th c.]
(object pronoun, colloquial) A person's favorite sports team.
I get that you're from Southeast Michigan, but I'm still surprised that you're a Detroit Lions fan. You have been on the receiving end of losing seasons for a while now.
(indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object). [from 16th c.]
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.
(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
Belizean Creole: yu
Bislama: yu
Cameroon Pidgin: you
Jamaican Creole: yuh
Nigerian Pidgin: yu
Sranan Tongo: yu
Tok Pisin: yu
Torres Strait Creole: yu
you
The individual or group spoken or written to.
Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus?
Used before epithets, describing the person being addressed, for emphasis.
You idiot!
you (third-person singular simple present yous, present participle youing, simple past and past participle youed)
(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).
you (plural yous)
The name of the Latin-script letter U/u.
u
doubleyou
yu
From English you.
IPA(key): /ju/
you
thou, thee, 2nd person singular subject and object personal pronoun
you
Rōmaji transcription of よう
yō (yō)
you
water
transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66
Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.
you
I
you (you5／you0, Zhuyin ˙ㄧㄡ)
Hanyu Pinyin reading of 喲／哟
you
Nonstandard spelling of yōu.
Nonstandard spelling of yóu.
Nonstandard spelling of yǒu.
Nonstandard spelling of yòu.
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.
you
Alternative form of yow
you
(chiefly Northern and East Midland dialectal) Alternative form of þou
Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.
IPA(key): /jow/
you
I (the first-person singular pronoun)
you
water
transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66
Borrowed from Bargam yuw and Waskia yu.
you
water
Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Meredith Osmond, The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: The Culture and Environment (2007, →ISBN
you
fire
Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)