# How do y'all use y'all
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 17, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160 "2005-01-17T05:18:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/1 "2005-01-17T05:18:33Z")
Dammit.
OK, this is a poll for those of us who use the word.
1. Does ya’ll mean one one person or a group?
2. Did y’all (dammit)
2A) Did you learn to speak in Texas?
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### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/2 "2005-01-17T05:28:17Z")
1. A group. Although that’s just me. I’ve been called y’all before.
2. Yep.
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### Author:  [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/3 "2005-01-17T05:36:54Z")
1. A group.
2. No, Mississippi.
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/4 "2005-01-17T05:39:28Z")
1. I only use it when reprimanding southerners that “y’all ain’t a word!” 😉
2. NorCal
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/5 "2005-01-17T05:44:47Z")
[QUOTE=CynicalGabe]
1. I only use it when reprimanding southerners that “y’all ain’t a word!” 😉
It is in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary 1980, Smart Ass.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/6 "2005-01-17T05:47:43Z")
Sorry, I forgot 🙂 Ya’ll.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/7 "2005-01-17T05:51:53Z")
I am a Northerer born and bred, who has traveled extensively in the US but generally on a horizontal plain. That is, I’ve never been south of the Mason Dixon. Nonetheless, I’m a big fan of “y’all”. English is sorely lacking in a second person plural and I think it needs one. Until we adopt “vous”, I’m going with “y’all”.
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### Author:  [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/8 "2005-01-17T06:00:43Z")
1. A Group
2. Yep.
2a. Nope, North Carolina.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/9 "2005-01-17T06:01:28Z")
1. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word but if I did, it would be to describe a group of people.
2. Eastern Tennessee
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/10 "2005-01-17T06:15:25Z")
> [@betenoir](#):
>
> I am a Northerer born and bred, … I’m going with “y’all”.
Holy shit, a Yankee.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/11 "2005-01-17T06:15:41Z")
“Y’all” is quite commonly used in my speech, and is generally addressed to more than one person.
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### Author:  [@Flipstrip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipstrip)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/12 "2005-01-17T06:17:53Z")
1. I use y’all as a collective noun
2. Yes I’ve been referred to as y’all before, mainly by people not from the south
2a. I’m from Arkansas
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/13 "2005-01-17T06:30:30Z")
1. Y’all is used to address more than one person. It means “you all”. If you hear it used singularly it is an outsider trying to sound southern.
2. Born (and technically “learned how to speak”) in Atlanta, but grew up mostly in NC. I don’t, however, under any circumstance, ever, not even on holidays or weekends, use “y’all”. I grew up with the privalege of flying for free and started travelling the country and the world by myself very frequently around age 16. I learned **very** quickly that “y’all” is seldom accepted and often laughed at outside of the southeast US (even many Europeans know the term and its “improperness”) and trained myself not to use it. Every so often I’ll still catch myself slipping but it’s less and less frequent these days.
I’ve always wondered though why we catch so much shit for “y’all” when those damn odd Pennsylvanians get off nearly scot-free for “yins” :p.
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### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/14 "2005-01-17T06:38:51Z")
In Texas, “y’all” is commonly used in place of “you.”
My English is impeccable but I do use y’all as part of normal speech. It’s generally regarded as cute by furners.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/15 "2005-01-17T06:45:40Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> I’ve always wondered though why we catch so much shit for “y’all” when those damn odd Pennsylvanians get off nearly scot-free for “yins” :p.
Allright, Ya’ll, what the hell does “yins” mean?
🙂
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### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/16 "2005-01-17T06:51:04Z")
Similar to “you-uns” maybe?
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### Author:  [@Time\_Like\_Tears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Like_Tears)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/17 "2005-01-17T06:51:50Z")
1.) always referring to more than one person.
2.) learned to speak in such states as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
Trying to say ‘you all’ trips up my tongue.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/18 "2005-01-17T06:52:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> I learned **very** quickly that “y’all” is seldom accepted and often laughed at outside of the southeast US (even many Europeans know the term and its “improperness”) and trained myself not to use it.
Not so much anymore. Both it and ain’t seem to be much more common now than they were when I was growing up in the eighties. I think it might be due in part to urban vernacular.
I still refuse to use either term though.
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### Author:  [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/19 "2005-01-17T07:06:31Z")
1. A group, unless the person has multiple personalities!
2. Everywhere, baby. Embrace the y’all.
2A) No. Mississippi. Duh.
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### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-yall-use-yall/285160/20 "2005-01-17T12:42:30Z")
1. plural. One person is you. More than one is y’all.
2. Nope, Tennessee. Although I rarely used it at all until I lived in Mississippi from 1998-1999. And I keep using it, partly because it’s just there, part of my vocabularly, and partly to stand out from these nose-talking Ohioans. 😉
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