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Pter Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

You-all and "you all"

I just stumbled upon "you-all" in the American Heritage Dictionary. It says you-all and y'all is chiefly southern U.S. So, how about "you all"? It seems to me that "you all" is very common. Is "you all" a different thing from "you-all"?
  

Top answer

" Did you all hear when he said? I want to make sure everybody heard it correctly, because I intend to file a complaint. " If you all take three cookies, there won't be enough for the guests.

  • " Did you all hear when he said?
  • I want to make sure everybody heard it correctly, because I intend to file a complaint.
  • " If you all take three cookies, there won't be enough for the guests.
  • " It's important to the meaning of the sentence.
  • Southerners, on the other hand, tack "all" onto "you" where other speakers would simply use "you" and let it be assumed to be plural.
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5 Answers
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There are many occasions when even a Yankee might want to say "you all."
Did you all hear when he said? I want to make sure everybody heard it correctly, because I intend to file a complaint.
I would like you all to take out your papers and begin when I say "Start."
If you all take three cookies, there won't be enough for the guests.

In these example
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In the South of the USA they use y'all to differ from you in the singular form.
Here in Toronto, Canada where I live we usually say you guys if we mean to say you in the plural. In the USA they use the you guys form too.
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Thank y'all for the very clear and eye-opening explanation. I've never imagined that there existed a plural form of "you" in modern day English. Perhaps, that's why I find it so difficult to understand Southern US accent.
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I would also venture to say, that "you-all" and its abbrev. mentioned here, are all colloquial english. Just as in Australia , its equivalent is"youse" "pronounced "yoos". Not sure of the spelling. It is not good english, nor is the "you-all" I suspect. But if one is quoting what someone said, then you would use it in writing.
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Thanks for the reminder and the additional example. Dialectal English certainly shouldn't be used in formal writing. However, for a non-native speaker like me, knowing such dialectal differences certainly helps me in understanding what is being said.

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