In Modern English, the word "you" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
You comes from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base , from Proto-Indo-European (second-person plural pronoun). Old English had singular, dual, and plural second-person pronouns. The dual form was lost by the twelfth century, and the singular form was lost by the early 1600s. The development is shown in the following table.
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, you has five shapes representing six distinct word forms:
- you: the nominative (subjective) and accusative (objective or oblique case) forms
- your: the dependent genitive (possessive) form
- yours: the independent genitive (possessive) form
- yourselves: the plural reflexive and intensive (emphatic) form
- yourself: the singular reflexive and intensive (emphatic) form
Plural forms from other varieties<span class="anchor" id="Plural_forms"></span>
Although there is some dialectal retention of the original plural ye and the original singular thou, most English-speaking groups have lost the original forms. Because of the loss of the original singular-plural distinction, many English dialects belonging to this group have innovated new plural forms of the second person pronoun. Examples of such pronouns sometimes seen and heard include:
- y'all, or you all – southern United States, African-American Vernacular English, the Abaco Islands, St. Helena particularly in the Midwest, Northeast, South Florida and West Coast; Canada, Australia. Gendered usage varies; for mixed groups, "you guys" is nearly always used. For groups consisting of only women, forms like "you girls" or "you gals" might appear instead, though "you guys" is sometimes used for a group of only women as well.
- ' – United Kingdom, Palmerston Island, Australia
- you mob – Australia
- , all-you – Caribbean English, Saba
- among(st)-you – Carriacou, Grenada, Guyana, Tyneside, Merseyside, Central Scotland, Australia, Falkland Islands, parts of the Midwestern US, Cape Breton and rural Canada
- yous(e) guys – in the United States, particularly in New York City region, Philadelphia, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan;
- you-uns, or yinz – Western Pennsylvania, the Ozarks, the Appalachians
- ye, , , ' – Ireland, Tyneside, Newfoundland and Labrador You is always definite even when it is not specific.
Semantically, you is both singular and plural, though syntactically it is almost always plural: i.e. always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, (i.e. you are, in common with we are and they are).
First person usage
The practice of referring to oneself as you, occasionally known as tuism, is common when talking to oneself. It is less common in conversations with others, as it could easily result in confusion. Since English lacks a distinct first person singular imperative mood, you and let's function as substitutes.
Third person usage
You is used to refer to an indeterminate person, as a more common alternative to the very formal indefinite pronoun one. Though this may be semantically third person, for agreement purposes, you is always second person.
:Example: "One should drink water frequently" or "You should drink water frequently".
Syntax
Agreement
You almost always triggers plural verb agreement, even when it is semantically singular.
Functions
You can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement.