Talk:I need your help

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Latest comment: 8 years ago by Stephen G. Brown
Jump to navigation Jump to search

I need your help on this project.

My response later is: I have finished your project.

Response back is: It is not my project, but our project.

Which is correct? The Your in project denotes your request for project is your ownership of the project.

I don't understand the final sentence there. Equinox 12:52, 26 June 2016 (UTC)Reply
In American English (I can’t speak for BrE), the pronoun you/your, whether the speaker means it in the singular or plural, and whether it is meant as the personal you or the generic you (one, anyone, people), is very frequently understood by a lone listener as the personal singular you and nothing else. It leads to a lot of misunderstandings, arguments, hurt feelings, and fistfights. Even murders. Everybody knows how to use you/your as singular, plural, and generic, but when it comes to listening, a lot of people tend to understand it as singular only. It is why the informal plurals such as y'all/y'all's have become so popular.
So the final sentence means that the writer believes that your use of the word your is the singular (contrasting with my), and it does not even cross his mind that it could be the plural.
Not long ago I watched a video of a police officer making an arrest. He had stopped a car for weaving, and when the driver got out, he had a marijuana joint behind his ear. The officer picked the joint from his ear and showed it to him, handcuffed him, and sat him in the back seat of the police cruiser. Then the young man said, "When you're wrong, you're wrong!" (clearly the generic use of you), and the officer understood it as the personal use and became enraged. —Stephen (Talk) 14:09, 26 June 2016 (UTC)Reply