Wiktionary

you

See also: You, yóu, yòu, yōu, yǒu, ȝou, and þou

English edit

 
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Etymology 1 edit

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 edit

Pronunciation edit

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 edit

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. [from 9th c.]
    Both of you should get ready now.
  2. (reflexive, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. [from 9th c.]
  3. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) [from 13th c.]
    • 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.) [from 14th c.]
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  5. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) [from 15th c.]
  6. (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.
  8. (indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object). [from 16th c.]
    • 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 edit
  • 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"[1] (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 edit
  • (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 edit
Descendants edit
  • 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 edit
See you/translations § Pronoun.
See also edit
English personal pronouns
Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.
personal pronoun possessive
pronoun		 possessive
determiner
subjective objective reflexive
first person singular I
me (colloquial)		 me myself
me
mysen		 mine my
mine (before vowels, archaic)
me
plural we us ourselves
ourself
oursen		 ours our
second person singular standard, formal you you yourself
yoursen		 yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		 your
archaic, informal thou thee thyself
theeself
thysen		 thine thy
thine (before vowels)
plural standard you
ye (archaic)		 you yourselves yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		 your
colloquial you all
y'all
you guys		 you all
y'all
you guys		 y'allselves y'all's
you guys'
your guys' (proscribed)		 y'all's
your all's (nonstandard)
you guys'
your guys' (proscribed)
informal / dialectal (see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person singular masculine he him himself
hisself (archaic)
hissen		 his
hisn (obsolete outside dialects)		 his
feminine she her herself
hersen		 hers
hern (obsolete outside dialects)		 her
neuter it
hit		 it
hit		 itself
hitself		 its
his (archaic)		 its
his (archaic)
hits
genderless they them themself, themselves theirs their
genderless, nonspecific
(formal) 		one one oneself – one's
plural they them
hem, 'em		 themselves
theirsen		 theirs
theirn (obsolete outside dialects)		 their

Determiner edit

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 edit
Translations edit
See you/translations § Determiner.

Verb edit

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 edit
See you/translations § Verb.

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

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 edit
Derived terms edit

References edit

  1. ^ The British Friend (November 1st, 1861), notes: "In 1659, Thomas Ellwood, Milton's friend and scoretary, thus expresses himself—“ The corrupt and unsound form of speaking in the plural number to a single person, you to one instead of thou, contrary to the pure, plain, and simple language ..."

Cameroon Pidgin edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From English you.

Pronunciation edit

Pronoun edit

you

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

See also edit

Cameroonian Pidgin personal pronouns
Subject personal pronouns
singular plural
1st person I we, wu
2nd person you wuna
3rd person i dey
Object and topic personal pronouns
1st person me we
2nd person you wuna
3rd person yi, -am dem, -am

Japanese edit

Romanization edit

you

  1. Rōmaji transcription of よう

See also edit

Karawa edit

Noun edit

you

  1. water

References edit

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

Leonese edit

Etymology edit

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronoun edit

you

  1. I

See also edit

Leonese personal pronouns
nominative disjunctive dative accusative
first person singular you min1 me
plural masculine nosoutros nos
feminine nosoutras
second person singular familiar tu ti1 te
formal3 vusté
plural familiar masculine2 vosoutros vos
feminine vosoutras
formal3 vustedes
third person singular4 masculine2 él ye lu
feminine eilla la
plural masculine2 eillos yes los
feminine eillas las
reflexive — sí1 —
  1. Not used with cun; cunmiéu, cuntiéu, and cunsiéu are used instead, respectively
  2. Masculine Leonese pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown or when the subject is plural and of mixed gender.
  3. Treated as if it were third-person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity.
  4. A neuter form eillu exists too.

Mandarin edit

Romanization edit

you (you5／you0, Zhuyin ˙ㄧㄡ)

  1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 喲／哟

Romanization edit

you

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

Usage notes edit

  • 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 edit

Etymology 1 edit

Pronoun edit

you

  1. Alternative form of yow

Etymology 2 edit

Pronoun edit

you

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

Mirandese edit

FWOTD – 11 November 2012

Etymology edit

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronunciation edit

Pronoun edit

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 edit

Noun edit

you

  1. water

References edit

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

Takia edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Bargam yuw and Waskia yu.[1]

Noun edit

you

  1. water

References edit

  • Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Meredith Osmond, The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: The Culture and Environment (2007, →ISBN
  1. ^ Loanwords in Takia, in Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook (edited by Martin Haspelmath, Uri Tadmor), page 761

Terebu edit

Noun edit

you

  1. fire

Further reading edit

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