you

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See also yōu, yóu, yǒu, and yòu

Contents

[edit] English

for « as « had « #17: you » not » be » at

[edit] Alternative spellings

[edit] Etymology

Middle English you, yow, ȝow, (object case of ye) from Old English ēow/īow (dat. case of gē) < West Proto-Germanic *iwwiz < Proto-Indo-European *ju. See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with Low German jie and archaic Swedish I. The presence of final -r in the German form is from an earlier -z in Germanic, and is mirrored by the final -r’s in German er, mir and wir, whereas English he, me and we lack the -r; Dutch and Scandinavian follow English in this respect.

[edit] Pronunciation

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 ← got you.

[edit] Pronoun

you second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective (possessive determiner your, possessive pronoun yours, singular reflexive yourself, plural reflexive yourselves)

  1. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to, or written to, as a subject.
    You must do as I tell you.
  2. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object.
    We’ll go with you to the game.
    You must do as I tell you.
  3. (subject pronoun) The group of persons spoken, or written to, as a subject.
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  4. (object pronoun) The group of persons spoken, or written to, as an object.
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  5. (subject pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual.
    You have to be at least 36 inches high to go on this ride.
    They don’t smile at you when they serve you in this store.

[edit] Usage notes

  • You was originally a formal form used when addressing strangers or to show deference, with the singular being thou when talking to friends or family. (This usage echoed German usage of "Sie" for polite conversation, and "du" for informal, friendly conversation.) You gradually came to be generalized to the singular in all circumstances.
  • Ye was the plural form used to address groups. The original nominative form was ye, whilst you was the objective (accusative and dative) form, but with time ye came to represent any plural form. Today the absence of a plural ye has led to slang expressions such as you guys, y'all, or youse (all are considered colloquial).
  • Early Modern English works use these archaic meanings. For example the King James Bible uses ye when referring to groups, you to display politeness or deference, and thou to represent a close personal relationship (such as with God).
  • You may be used imperatively to issue a permission ("You go right ahead") or a command ("You stay out of it").
  • See Wiktionary:English inflection for other personal pronouns.

[edit] Synonyms

  • (subject pronoun: the person spoken/written to): thou (singular, archaic), ye, yer (dialect)
  • (subject pronoun: the persons spoken/written to): all of you (plural), ye, yer (dialect), you’s (plural dialect), y’all (informal US plural), you all (plural), you + number (plural, to the specified number of people)
  • (object pronoun: the person spoken/written to): thee (singular, archaic), ye, to you, to thee, to ye
  • (object pronoun: the persons spoken/written to): ye, to you, to ye, to you all
  • (one): one, people, they, them

[edit] Translations

subject pronoun: the person being addressed
object pronoun: the person being addressed
subject pronoun: the group being addressed
object pronoun: the group being addressed
one
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] 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 for emphasis.
    You idiot!

[edit] Translations

the individual or group spoken/written to
used before epithets for emphasis
  • Note: In Japanese, all of these words are actually nouns and are not normally required.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] Japanese

[edit] Verb

you (godan conjugation, hiragana よう)

  1. 酔う: to get drunk, to get tipsy

[edit] See also

[edit] Mandarin

[edit] Verb

you (Pinyin yǒu, simplified 有)

  1. have; possess
    Zhongguo yinggai you yi zhong tǒngyī de yuyan. "China should have a unified language."
    zhe fen baozhi you hen duo guanggao. "This newspaper has a lot of advertisement."
    women xuexiao de jianshenfang you hen duo tiyu qixie. "There are many sports apparatuses in the gymnasium of our school.
    zhe jian yiyuan li you hen duo bingren. (zhè jiàn yīyuàn li yǒu hěn duō bìngrén. 这间医院里有很多病人.) — There are many patients in this hospital.
  2. be; exist

[edit] Pinyin syllable

you

  1. A transliteration of any of a number of Chinese characters properly represented as having one of four tones, yōu, yóu, yǒu, or yòu.

[edit] Usage notes

English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

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