Comments on: Youse, Y’All, and Other Confusions of Modern English

By: jaegerhund

jaegerhund — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:43:02 +0000

As a southerner I can tell you that y’all is NEVER singular. If you are talking to group and consider the group an entity , you use “y’all . ” If you are talking to a group and you are addressing each individual in the group, you use “all y’all.” Never in my days have I heard a southerner address one person with “y’all”. It doesn’t even match the “you all” that “y’all” is a contraction of. It just does not sound right to my southern ears —–

By: David Crandall

David Crandall — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:59:59 +0000

I’m so thankful I live in the South. I don’t know how y’all can say ‘youse’. Looks like ‘grouse’ to me…even though it pronounced entirely different.

And for the record, even though I know it’s wrong, we mostly put the apostrophe after the ‘a’ like ‘ya’ll’ instead of ‘y’all’. Not sure why, but that’s the most common spelling.

Love the post!

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:52:58 +0000

I thought you might be interested to know that Polynesian languages like Maori often have 2 words for just plural “we”. In Maori they are maatou and taatou. That makes it possible to distinguish easily between “me and them” and “me and you and them”. Maori speakers will often finish a group greeting with “Teenaa koutou, teenaa koutou, teenaa taatou katoa”, which literally means “Greetings to you, greetings to you, greetings to all of us.”
I’m not even going to go into the dual pronouns (for 2 people). So there are actually 3 pronouns that translate to something like “you”, “youse two” and “youse guys”.

By: Mary Miller

Mary Miller — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:55:21 +0000

Hi,
I just had to say something…My mother is a first generation American, her family is from Norway. They use “youse”, I always wondered where the term came from. I knew it was a derivation of “you” and sometimes “you” “Guys”, but it would be used in various phrasing:
“Could youse go and get me something from the other room” or “Youse all make me crazy”. I can’t think of any other, but I remember hearing it as I grew up quite a bit from my Grandmother (from Kristiansund Norway) and Grandfather (from Vardu Norway), of course my mother adapted it to her own way of using it as lexicon goes.
When I got older, I thought it was interesting that other imigrants used this term, esp. in movies (over used and over empathized). No, my grandparents did not land for longer than a few weeks in New York, and did not spend time in NJ. so I often wondered where the term came from: probably Christian Ministries! LOL. Thanks!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:56:42 +0000

I must say, I have enjoyed reading this post, but mostly, I have enjoyed reading the various comments it has produced.

As a southern native in a state that seems to now staunchly deny its ’southern-ness’ (Virginia) and with family from the slightly more southern state of North Carolina (the mountains of Western North Carolina, mind you, where the accent is much more pronounced) I can relate to so many of the ‘y’all’ comments. And the you’ns.

Another contraction I picked up from my mountain-dwelling family; young’ns. (young ones; kids).

Example: Y’all had best grab your young’ns before one of them gets hurt. (which, when spoken sounds more like: Y’all’d bes’ grab yer youngins ‘fore one of ‘em gets hurt. ;D )

That being said, I also seem to pick up the accent of the person I happen to be speaking to, as a previous commenter observed. I find this amusing and strange. Anyone have an idea why this is?

Mr. Ferriss- unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to read your book, but if your blog is any indication of the tone and voice of your book, I’m sure it would be a great read. When I find myself able to afford it, it’s definitely going on the top of my list!! In the meantime, I’m definitely enjoying reading your blog, and I’d like to thank you for taking the time to write it.

~Amanda