Second person plural pronoun

[Parmandur]

Y'all should be reclaimed and celebrated as a fully functional American plural pronoun neologism

100% true, but if the question is about "formal writing" then what @TaranTheWanderer saus is correct too.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

It is tempting to use "yall" and "yalls".

For the possessive form I am going with "of you all".

"The seats of you all at the table."

This doesn’t make sense to me. What are you trying to say in this sentence?

All of your seats? Are you talking about each person’s seat? The sentence, as written is not clear and sounds off.

In what context would you use that sentence?

“Please, everyone, take your seat at the table so we can eat dinner”

You want to say,
“Please take the seats of you all at the table” ?

The easiest way to say that is to address the crowd and say,

“Please take your seat” or “you may now take your seat”

 

[Mind of tempest]

In a formal American context (contemporary but educated), when it is necessary to routinely distinguish between singular you and plural you, which pronoun sounds least awkward?

• you ones
• you guys
• you folks
• you lot
• yous


So far I have been using "you ones", and it sounds literary enough. However I also naturally use "one" as a gender neutral pronoun for an unspecified referent. ("One must do this in that kind of situation.") And it ends up being an awful lot of "ones".

By far, "you guys" is the most natural, but it is stigmatically informal, and its implication of male can sometimes be awkward.


If you had to use one of these, which would you use?

my contemporaries and younger have tried to make "chat"one

 

[Yaarel]

This doesn’t make sense to me. What are you trying to say in this sentence?

All of your seats? Are you talking about each person’s seat? The sentence, as written is not clear and sounds off.

In what context would you use that sentence?

“Please, everyone, take your seat at the table so we can eat dinner”

You want to say,
“Please take the seats of you all at the table” ?

The easiest way to say that is to address the crowd and say,

“Please take your seat” or “you may now take your seat”

In the phrase, "the seats of you all at the table", I mean, "at that table, those seats which belong to those of you who I am referring to".

You a right, the phrase was more complicated than it appeared at first glance.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

In the phrase, "the seats of you all at the table", I mean, "at that table, those seats which belong to those of you who I am referring to".

You a right, the phrase was more complicated than it appeared at first glance.

It’s not only more complicated but also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It really isn’t how anyone would say or write that statement.

If you want to use “you all”, you can say

“You may all take your seat”

Which is much more natural than

“You all may take your seat”

even if someone from the south US might even say “y’all can take your seat” which is a colloquialism - at least in Canada where I’m from.

 

[Yaarel]

That sounds pretty stilted to me as an American English speaker. “Your seats” or “all of your seats” sounds much more natural.

I know, but it is the "you" that is plural, rather than the "seats" per se.

It’s not only more complicated but also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It really isn’t how anyone would say or write that statement.

If you want to use “you all”, you can say

“You may all take your seat”

Which is much more natural than

“You all may take your seat”

even if someone from the south US might even say “y’all can take your seat” which is a colloquialism - at least in Canada where I’m from.

Heh, the reason stuff like this sounds awkward is because English lacks a proper pronoun for this.

But it isnt a matter of reconfiguring a particular sentence. It is about hundreds of sentences, and each one needs to be routinely clear. I need a "least bad" pronoun.

 

[Yaarel]

In the pronoun "you all", sometimes the "all" is awkward. For example, if the speaker is criticizing the ones being addressed, whether saying "all of you" who are present or only "some of you" becomes notable.

(This is why "THIQ" is precisely the meaning, the hearers in question.)

[Edit]: According to a dictionary, the "all" in "y'all" is a "plural marker", not a quantifier, so it can specifically mean "some of yall", not necessarily "all of yall".

 

[FrogReaver]

Everyone also seems like it could substitute for you all in some instances.

Everyone, please sit
Y’all please sit

In the cases it can you may prefer it.

 

[the Jester]

"You" as a plural is extremely clear in almost all cases. The edge cases where it isn't are those in which it might be addressed to one person or several and context clues are lacking. "Take your seats" is an example where it is clear from the pluralizing of "seats" that each person is meant to take their own, individual, seat. The only way it might sound ambiguous is if one person owns more than one of the chairs or stools referenced, but even then, it's very clear that the intent is for each person to sit down.

I can't remember the last time "you" (plural) was ambiguous in a conversation I heard. More likely to come up is the question of whether "we" is inclusive or exclusive- "We're going to the store"- does that include the person you're speaking to or not?

 

[Umbran]

This having absolutely nothing to do with D&D, I moved this to a more appropriate forum.