# How do you phrase the 2nd person plural **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 9, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672 "2011-12-09T22:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scathach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Scathach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scathach)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/41 "2011-12-10T23:29:18Z")
Heh, I see I’m still the sole “Ye” sayer so far anyway 🙂 Incidentally, I didn’t include it as a poll option because I’d never heard of it, but has anyone ever heard “Yinz” from [Grammatical person - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_person) in the “colloquial” section. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/42 "2011-12-11T00:14:50Z")
> [@Scathach](#): > > Incidentally, I didn’t include it as a poll option because I’d never heard of it, but has anyone ever heard “Yinz” See Post #13 for the closest I’ve heard to that version. ---
**Author:** ![Scathach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Scathach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scathach)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/43 "2011-12-11T00:19:35Z")
Hmm, you’re right actually, I’d been parsing that as a contraction of “you ones” but that applies equally to yinz I guess. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/44 "2011-12-11T02:28:30Z")
Ye here, although sometimes it’s ye other time yiz. ---
**Author:** ![Scathach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Scathach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scathach)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/45 "2011-12-11T02:34:30Z")
You jackeen dub 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/46 "2011-12-11T05:29:47Z")
Definitely “you guys.” I am intrigued by **Guizot’s** statement that this construction is somehow considered substandard. I’ve never heard this objection. If anyone can point me to studies that were done on this, I’d love to see them. (I did once read a South Carolina columnist argue that it was not correct to use “you guys” to refer to “women of a certain age,” but that was in the context of a rant about too many Northerners moving to his town, making it a somewhat different criticism.) I’d be really curious to see studies confirming the ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/47 "2011-12-11T05:36:43Z")
I caught myself saying, ‘you guys’ this afternoon when asking my son what he and his girlfriend would be doing on New Year’s Eve. Maybe I do it all the time and I’ve never noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/48 "2011-12-11T05:56:17Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I don’t understand you people What do you mean, “you people”??! :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/49 "2011-12-11T05:57:17Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > I once did _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ with a girl from Texas. She did really well with the English accent, only she kept on saying “Thou’all”. It was hilarious, she knew her lines and did them in a reasonable English accent, and then once in a while “thou’all” would pop up! Brilliant 🙂 This cracks me up to no end. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/50 "2011-12-11T06:54:33Z")
“You guys” most of the time and “you all” once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/51 "2011-12-11T08:15:12Z")
‘You’ if there’s no ambiguity. ‘You guys’ or ‘you lot’ if I need to make it clearer that I’m talking to more than one person. I’m in Australia, if location matters. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/52 "2011-12-11T08:41:54Z")
Depends on who am I adressing and on context: you is the proper form, you guys, you all, y’all, for friends. I tend to absorb and reflect people’s dialects, in English as in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/53 "2011-12-11T12:49:56Z")
> [@Scathach](#): > > You jackeen dub 😛 Hey I’m from Co. Meath originally! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/54 "2011-12-11T15:43:28Z")
You, and I don’t find it hard to phrase questions. If I do think it might be ambiguous, I actually say “you - plural!” if that’s what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/55 "2011-12-11T18:34:24Z")
coming up with y’all was one of the best things to come out of the south. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/56 "2011-12-11T18:41:16Z")
Oh, I also say “all of you” sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/57 "2011-12-11T18:48:00Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > “You all” or “y’all” is what hillbillies say. Like hell it is says this…uh…well… OK, you got me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/58 "2011-12-11T18:51:00Z")
Actually, though, the “sure enough” hillbillies I have known don’t say “y’all.” They say “you’uns” (you ones, I guess) which comes out “yins.” ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/59 "2011-12-12T07:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > **Teufelblitz** : My family has a neutral accent… There is no such thing as a neutral accent. You can have a mixed accent. You can have a Mid-western accent (which sounds a little neutral since it is the broadcast standard). But there is no neutral. By the way, I’m from West Tennessee also. I’m not suggesting that you have retained a WT accent, but my husband can tell the difference when I’m on the phone with a WT friend just by the way I talk. It’s different from how I talk with Middle Tennessee friends. I use a variety of 2nd person plurals. I do it without thinking usually. I’ve noticed “you guys” creeping in more and more. There is no reason to be snobbish about the use. I prefer “y’all” in informal situations. I don’t know what “hillbillies” use. I’ve never been around any. West Tennessee is generally sort of flat except up around the 1812 earthquake area (close to Missouri). Middle Tennessee has more hills, but the real estate tends to be expensive these days. I think **Ponch8** has been watching too much television. (Most of it is made up by California writers, **Ponch**.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672/60 "2011-12-12T14:16:09Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > coming up with y’all was one of the best things to come out of the south. It’s not uniquely Southern. It exists in the Indian dialect of South African English as well, and probably independently, given the lack of ties. I don’t know if it’s common in Southern Indian English dialects as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-phrase-the-2nd-person-plural/605672.md?page=4)