When a word ending in/t/,/d/,/s/, or/z/ is followed byyou, these may coalesce with the/j/, resulting in/tʃ/,/dʒ/,/ʃ/ and/ʒ/, respectively. This is occasionally represented in writing, e.g.gotcha (fromgotyou) orwhatchadoin'? (more formallywhatareyoudoing?).
Pronoun
you (second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective,possessive determineryour,possessive pronounyours,singular reflexiveyourself,plural reflexiveyourselves)
(object pronoun) Thepeople spoken, or written to, as an object.[from 9th c.]
(subject pronoun) Theperson spoken to or written to, as asubject. (Originally as a mark of respect.)[from 15th c.]
c.1395,Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Clerk's Tale",Canterbury Tales, Ellesmere manuscript (c. 1410):
certes lord / so wel vs likethyow / And al youre werk / and euere han doon / þat we / Ne koude nat vs self deuysen how / We myghte lyuen / in moore felicitee [...].
(indefinite personal pronoun)Anyone,one; anunspecified individual or group ofindividuals (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; likeus as opposed towe). The subject pronoun wasye, and the corresponding singular pronouns werethee andthou, respectively. In some forms of (older) English,you andye doubled as polite singular forms, e.g. used in addressing superiors, withthee andthou being the non-polite singular forms. In the 1600s, some writers objected to the use of "singular you"[1] (compare objections to the singularthey), but in modern Englishthee andthou are archaic and all but nonexistent andyou is used for both the singular and the plural.
Several forms of English now distinguish singularyou from variousmarked plural forms, such asyou guys,y'all,you-uns, oryouse, though not all of these are completely equivalent or consideredStandard English.
The pronounyou 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 thedon't, or (more commonly) after it (Don't you dare go in there;Don't you start now).
The pronounyou is also used in an indefinite sense: thegenericyou.
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 heryouing away on television the other night just like the inhabitants of her mother’s dominions beyond the seas.
But even having my very own personal pronoun was risky, because it’s pretty tough to keep stopped-hope stopped up whenyou are getting allyoued 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 Dadyouing me—the long ooo of it broad and extended, like a hand.
↑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 ..."
Englishtranscriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
