you

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See also yōu, yóu, yǒu, and yòu

Contents

[edit] English

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[edit] Alternative forms

[edit] Etymology

From Middle English you, yow, ȝow, (object case of ye), from Old English ēow, īow (“you”) (dative case of ġē), from West Germanic *iwwiz ("you") (dative case of *jīz), from Proto-Germanic *izwiz (“you”) (dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *wes, *we-, *wō- (“you”), object case of *yūs, *yu-sme-, *ye- (“second person dual and plural pronoun”). Cognate with West Frisian jo (“you”), Low German jo (“you”), Dutch jou & u (“you”), Middle High German eu, iu (“you”, obj. pron.), Latin vōs (“you”), Avestan vō (“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 archaic Swedish I.

[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.
    Can you help us?
    You must do as I tell you.
  2. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object.
    I'll give you my pen.
    We’ll go with you to the game.
    You must do as I tell you.
  3. (subject pronoun) The group of persons spoken to or written to, as a subject.
    Both of you should get ready now.
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  4. (object pronoun) The group of persons spoken, or written to, as an object.
    Everyone, Chris can help you now.
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  5. (subject pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals.
    You have to be at least 36 inches high to go on this ride.
  6. (object pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals.
    They always smile at you when they serve you in this restaurant.
  7. (archaic, reflexive) yourself
    Your highness shall repose you at the Tower — Shakespeare, Richard III

[edit] Usage notes

  • Originally, you was specifically plural (indicating multiple people), and specifically objective (serving as the direct or indirect object of a verb, or object of a preposition; like present-day us, as opposed to we). The corresponding subjective pronoun was ye, and their corresponding singular pronouns were thee and thou, respectively. (Thus you was to ye, thee, and thou as us is to we, me, and I, respectively.)
  • In some forms of English, you and ye have doubled as plural forms and as polite singular forms, used in addressing superiors and (in some forms) equals, with thee and thou being the non-polite singular forms. Such alternation, insofar as it still exists, is now only dialectal: in present-day English, thee and thou are all but nonexistent.
  • Although you no longer distinguishes singular from plural, various forms of English have marked plural forms, such as you guys, y'all, or youse (though not all of these are completely equivalent or considered Standard English).
  • The pronoun you is usually omitted in imperative sentences, but need not be. In affirmative imperatives, 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).
  • See Appendix:English parts of speech 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] Derived terms

[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] See also

English personal pronouns
Number Person Gender Subject Objective Reflexive Possessive Possessive Pronoun
Singular First — I me myself my mine
Second — you,
thou (archaic)		 you,
thee (archaic)		 yourself,
thyself (archaic)
theeself (archaic)		 your,
thy (archaic)		 yours,
thine (archaic)
Third Masculine he him himself his
Feminine she her herself her hers
Neuter it itself its its (rare)
Plural First — we us ourselves our ours
Second — you,
ye (archaic)		 you yourselves your yours
Third — they them themselves their theirs
Indefinite Third — one oneself one's —

[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
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] Statistics

[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] Romanization

you

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

[edit] Middle English

[edit] Alternative forms

[edit] Etymology

From Old English ēow.

[edit] Pronoun

you

  1. you

[edit] Descendants

[edit] Mirandese

[edit] Pronoun

you

  1. I
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