you

See also: You, yóu, yòu, yōu, yǒu, ȝou, and þou

English

Alternative forms
  • ye (plural form, archaic or dialectal)
  • ya, yah, yer, yeh, y', yo, yu, yuh (informal or eye dialect)
  • -cha (informal, after /t/)
  • -ja (informal, after /d/)
  • u (informal, internet)
  • yoo (eye dialect)
  • yew (became obsolete as English spelling became more standardised, then was ‘recoined’ as a nonstandard variant for (chiefly humorous) use in informal situations and on the internet)
  • youe, yow, yowe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English you, yow, ȝow (object case of ye), from Old English ēow, īow ("you"; dative case of ġē), from *iwwiz ("you"; dative case of *jīz), Western form of Proto-Germanic *izwiz ("you"; dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *yūs (“you (plural)”), *yū́. Cognate with Saterland Frisian jou (“you”), West Frisian jo (“you”), Low German jo, joe and oe (“you”), Dutch jou and u (“you”), Middle High German eu, iu (“you”, obj. pron.), Latin vōs (“you”), Avestan 𐬬𐬋‎ (vō, “you”).

See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; Low German ji, jo/ju, jug and German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with archaic Swedish I.

Pronunciation

When a word ending in /t/, /d/, /s/, or /z/ is followed by you, these may coalesce with the /j/, resulting in /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, respectively. This is occasionally represented in writing, e.g. gotcha (from got you).

Pronoun

you (second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective, possessive determiner your, possessive pronoun yours, singular reflexive yourself, plural reflexive yourselves)

  1. (object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object. [from 9th c.]
    • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. Genesis XLII:
      And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies [...].
  2. (reflexive, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. [from 9th c.]
    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Richard III:
      If I may counsaile you, some day or two / Your Highnesse shall repose you at the Tower [...].
    • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. Genesis XIX:
      And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city.
    • 1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug:
      ‘Pull you up a chair,’ she offered.
    • 1975, Joseph Nazel, Death for Hire:
      You'd better get you a gun and kill him before he kills you or somebody.
  3. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) [from 13th c.]
    • c. 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII:
      I charge you, as ye woll have my love, that ye warne your kynnesmen that ye woll beare that day the slyve of golde uppon your helmet.
  4. (subject pronoun) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.) [from 14th c.]
    Both of you should get ready now.
    You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  5. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) [from 15th c.]
  6. (indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object). [from 16th c.]
    • 2001, Polly Vernon, The Guardian, 5 May 2001:
      You can't choose your family, your lovers are difficult and volatile, but, oh, you can choose your friends - so doesn't it make much more sense to live and holiday with them instead?

Usage notes
  • Originally, you was specifically plural (indicating multiple people), and specifically the object form (serving as the object of a verb or preposition; like us as opposed to we). The subject pronoun was ye, and the corresponding singular pronouns were thee and thou, respectively. In some forms of (older) English, you and ye doubled as polite singular forms, e.g. used in addressing superiors, with thee and thou being the non-polite singular forms. In the 1600s, some writers objected to the use of "singular you"[1] (compare objections to the "singular they"), but in modern English thee and thou are archaic and all but nonexistent and you is used for both the singular and the plural.
  • Several forms of English now distinguish singular you from various marked plural forms, such as you guys, y'all, or youse, though not all of these are completely equivalent or considered Standard English.
  • The pronoun you is usually, but not always, omitted in imperative sentences. In affirmatives, it may be included before the verb (You go right ahead; You stay out of it); in negative imperatives, it may be included either before the don't, or (more commonly) after it (Don't you dare go in there; Don't you start now).
  • See Appendix:English parts of speech for other personal pronouns.

Synonyms
  • (subject pronoun: person spoken/written to):
    yer (UK eye dialect)
    plus the alternative forms listed above and at Appendix:English personal pronouns
  • (subject pronoun: persons spoken/written to; plural): See Thesaurus:y'all
  • (object pronoun: person spoken/written to): thee (singular, archaic), ye, to you, to thee, to ye
  • (object pronoun: persons spoken/written to): ye, to you, to ye, to you all
  • (one): one, people, they, them

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also
English personal pronouns
personal pronounpossessive
pronoun		possessive
determiner
subjectiveobjectivereflexive
first personsingular Imemyselfminemy
mine (before vowels, archaic)
plural weusourselves
ourself		oursour
second personsingularstandard youyouyourselfyours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		your
archaic, informal thoutheethyself
theeself		thinethy
thine (before vowels)
pluralstandard you
you all
ye (archaic)		you
you all		yourselvesyours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)		your
informal / dialectal (see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third personsingularmasculine hehimhimself
hisself (archaic)		his
hisn (obsolete outside dialects)		his
feminine sheherherselfhers
hern (obsolete outside dialects)		her
neuter itititselfits
his (archaic)		its
his (archaic)
genderless theythemthemself, themselvestheirstheir
genderless, nonspecific
(formal)		 oneoneoneself–one's
plural theythemthemselvestheirs
theirn (obsolete outside dialects)		their

Determiner

you

  1. The individual or group spoken or written to.
    Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus?
  2. Used before epithets for emphasis.
    You idiot!

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

you (third-person singular simple present yous, present participle youing, simple past and past participle youed)

  1. (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun you, rather than thou, especially historically when you was more formal.
    • 1930, Barrington Hall, Modern Conversation, Brewer & Warren, page 239:
      Youing consists in relating everything in the conversation to the person you wish to flatter, and introducing the word “you” into your speech as often as possible.
    • 1992, Barbara Anderson, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Victoria University Press, page 272:
      Now even Princess Anne had dropped it. Sarah had heard her youing away on television the other night just like the inhabitants of her mother’s dominions beyond the seas.
    • 2004, Ellen Miller, Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books, "Practicing":
      But even having my very own personal pronoun was risky, because it’s pretty tough to keep stopped-hope stopped up when you are getting all youed up, when someone you really like keeps promising you scary, fun, exciting stuff—and even tougher for the of that moment to remain securely devoid of hope, to make smart, self-denying decisions with Dad youing me—the long ooo of it broad and extended, like a hand.

Translations

References
  1. The British Friend (November 1st, 1861), notes: "In 1659, Thomas Ellwood, Milton's friend and scoretary, thus expresses himself—“ The corrupt and unsound form of speaking in the plural number to a single person, you to one instead of thou, contrary to the pure, plain, and simple language ..."

Japanese

Romanization

you

  1. Rōmaji transcription of よう

See also

Karawa

Noun

you

  1. water

References
  • transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Mandarin

Romanization

you

  1. Nonstandard spelling of yōu.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of yóu.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of yǒu.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of yòu.

Usage notes
  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

you

  1. Alternative form of yow

References

Etymology 2

Pronoun

you

  1. (chiefly Northern and East Midland dialectal) Alternative form of þou

References

Mirandese
FWOTD – 11 November 2012

Etymology

From Old Leonese you, from Vulgar Latin *eo, attested from the 6th century in Romance, from Latin ego.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /jow/

Pronoun

you

  1. I (the first-person singular pronoun)
    • 2008, Picä Tumilho (band) (music), “Ai que cochino!!! (ver. II)”, in Faíçca: Ua stória d'amor i laboura:
      I you cun muita fuorça spetei bien la faca
      And I strongly skewered (with) the knife.

Pouye

Noun

you

  1. water

References
  • transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Takia

Etymology

Borrowed from Bargam yuw and Waskia yu.[1]

Noun

you

  1. water

References
  • Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, Meredith Osmond, The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: The Culture and Environment (2007, →ISBN
  1. Loanwords in Takia, in Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook (edited by Martin Haspelmath, Uri Tadmor), page 761

Terebu

Noun

you

  1. fire

Further reading
  • Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)
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