### Author:  [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/10 "2013-01-31T15:36:52Z")
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Oh yeah, and it’s “y’all”. A contraction of “you all”.
Follow the regular rules for making contractions - put the apostrophe in place of the removed letters.
you all = y’ all = y’all
“Ya’ll” is just right out.
Thank you for your cooperation.
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### Author:  [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/11 "2013-01-31T16:08:16Z")
No difference in how black people and white people say “y’all” from southern Arkansas. **redtail23** describes “all y’all” correctly. To me it also means a little more emotion and firmness, just like “each and every one of you” would.
Everybody can say “y’all” to everybody, from schoolchildren to the President, but writing is a lot more restricted. I’ve never used or read “y’all” in an essay, newspaper article, or book, unless it was a quotation or written in dialect. I used it plenty in Internet chat. Rarely in e-mail just because I tend to think of e-mail as formal by default.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/12 "2013-01-31T18:00:57Z")
I am Southern by upbringing and I agree with **redtail23**. There is no singular version of ‘Y’all’ even though I have heard many people claim that there is. I think that the misunderstanding is caused by the lack of understanding about who exactly is being referred to.
If someone uses Y’all and directs it to just one person, that still doesn’t mean it is singular. The speaker is referring to an implied group that you are a part of and that group can vary based on context.
For instance, you could run into a neighbor at the grocery store and she may say to you ‘Y’all be sure to drop by and see me sometime’. That isn’t singular. Y’all in this case is referring to all the members of your household or maybe even your whole extended family if she is friendly with all of them. In this case, Y’all has properties like the term ‘You and yours’ in a greeting card.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/13 "2013-01-31T18:07:34Z")
To answer the OP, I have never noticed any difference in the way blacks and whites use the term. It is just general Southern speech.
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### Author:  [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/14 "2013-01-31T18:35:16Z")
Oh, that’s a good point, **Shagnasty**. It’s always used in context here, so I hadn’t noticed it.
But, I don’t really think that’s what has caused the confusion.
I think it stems from (1) an unfamiliar intensifier, and (2) perception of Southerners as stupid.
Who but those slack-jawed yokels down there would do something so stupid as to use an obvious plural as a singular and then have to make up a new phrase for the plural?
Please note that the first several dozen times I ran across this concept (of “y’all” as singular), it was in one of those joke lists of “Southern phrasing” (way, way back before the Internets).
I mean, really. Have you ever once heard of anyone that thought that “you guys”, “youse”, “yinz”, “you’uns”, “yunz”, or any of the other umpteen variations on this concept, was singular?
Even when used similarly to your example, they still don’t get this crap.
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### Author:  [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/15 "2013-01-31T18:37:10Z")
Y’all is plural. Except on TV and in movies where it is used as a crutch to indicate ignorance.
It’s always fun to see TV and movie writers show their ignorance in while trying to poke fun of the ignorance of others.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/16 "2013-01-31T21:35:03Z")
> [@shiftless](#):
>
> Y’all is plural. Except on TV and in movies where it is used as a crutch to indicate ignorance.
Or in this thing called “real life”. Just like the OP, I am constantly being asked by clerks and such “Did y’all find everything you need.” etc. when it’s just me standing there.
The extent to which some people are in denial in how common the singular “y’all” is used is astonishing. People use it. A lot. Deal with it.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/17 "2013-01-31T21:38:17Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> Or in this thing called “real life”. Just like the OP, I am constantly being asked by clerks and such “Did y’all find everything you need.” etc. when it’s just me standing there.
>
> The extent to which some people are in denial in how common the singular “y’all” is used is astonishing. People use it. A lot. Deal with it.
I have never heard it myself. I certainly never used it in the singular either and have never known anyone that does. Was there a line by chance? Maybe the cashier thought you were with other people. Y’all is always plural even if the group is implied or simply mistaken. Southerners know the singular form of Y’all and use it as well. It is simply ‘you’.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/18 "2013-01-31T21:39:29Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#):
>
> “I’m going to the store fer some bread,”
Or more correctly where I’m from “I’m fixin’ to go to the store fer some bread”. We southerners are always “fixin’ to”.
> [@shiftless\[/quote](#):
>
> It’s always fun to see TV and movie writers show their ignorance in while trying to poke fun of the ignorance of others.
Yes, if by “fun” you mean “grating on my last nerve to the extent that I want to subject the writer(s) and boss(es) to an eternity of listening to fingernails slowly screeching across a blackboard”. Absolutely.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/19 "2013-02-01T00:58:11Z")
Y’all is a Southern expression that tries to make up for one of the flaws in the standard English language.
The word ‘You’ can refer to an individual, a group, or a everyone in aggregate.
In standard English we have:
You = one person
You = the group you are a part of
You = everyone regardless of their group affiliation.
Y’all isn’t an ignorant expression or a grammatical error. It is a real word with set grammatical rules even if people that aren’t accustomed to it don’t understand them. Blacks and whites use it the same way and almost always correctly as long as they were raised in those dialects.
This construct tries to give more clarification than standard English allows in short form:
You = one person
Y’all = the group you are a part of
All Y’all = everyone regardless of their group affiliation (in other words, a set of groups).
I stand by my statement that Y’all is never singular in Southern English although I can see how mistakes of assumptions by the speaker would lead someone to think it is sometimes.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899/20 "2013-02-01T01:08:24Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> . . . I stand by my statement that Y’all is never singular in Southern English . . . .
Right. Because that’s the way it is. (But I suspect you/we are wasting your/our time debating that point.)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-yall-is-there-any-difference-in-how-southerners-texans-vs-black-people-use-yall/648899.md?page=2)