Second person plural pronoun

[Yaarel]

Yes, y'all is colloquial and not formal, so for formal usage you are correct.

In terms of real world usage, between Calkfornia and Ohio I have e seen y'all become more and more frequently used by people irregardless of regional accent over my lifetime, at an accelerating rate, too. As some with lhistorical literary and linguistic training, it has been a fascinating "on the ground" example of language shift in the past few decades.

That combination of both California and Ohio using y'all, suggests it is becoming American neutral.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Just to reiterate “you ones” is never used in any form. Neither in writing nor in common speech. It’s just bad grammar.

 

[Umbran]

I am noticing, the choice of the 2p (second person plural) affects the feel of the text.

In places where it is frequent, the term "you guys" seems more intensely masculine with repetition. No pun intended: the repetition "you folks" starts sounding more and more "folksy". The phrase "you ones" gets increasingly distracting, akin to "s/he" or "he or she".

The repetition of "you all" starts to sound more dialectical, in the sense of a conspicuous phrasing. But it seems the least problematic option.

..."you people"...

 

[Yaarel]

..."you people"...

Yeah, that one never comes out right.


I think the few instances of "you lot" I have heard have a similar issue. Something about objectifying a group as a single entity starts to go wrong pretty much immediately.

Somehow, in use, y'all stays neutral. But "all y'all" gets into that issue.

 

[Umbran]

You doesn’t ever have a collective use.

What?
Coach, to the football team at halftime, "...now I want you to go out there and fight!"

 

[Umbran]

Yeah, that one never comes out right.

So picky!

Fine, go with the actual formal construction for "y'all", which is, "all of you,"

 

[Parmandur]

In my experience, the Ontario accent sounds exactly like American neutral, except for the surprising "eu" in "abeut", "eut", "sheut", plus more enunciation ("have you beeen"), and attention to grammar.

As someone with a very General American accent, I think thst is fair.

 

[Parmandur]

That combination of both California and Ohio using y'all, suggests it is becoming American neutral.

Yeah, especially over time. It is historically a region alism, but it is the only regional variant of a second person plural that seems to be spreading, and literally everyone understands it.

 

[Parmandur]

I am noticing, the choice of the 2p (second person plural) affects the feel of the text.

In places where it is frequent, the term "you guys" seems more intensely masculine with repetition. No pun intended: the repetition "you folks" starts sounding more and more "folksy". The phrase "you ones" gets increasingly distracting, akin to "s/he" or "he or she".

The repetition of "you all" starts to sound more dialectical, in the sense of a conspicuous phrasing. But it seems the least problematic option.

All of those sound fairly clunky to me.

Are you aiming towards writing sometspecific for an audience, or juat musing about English usage?

 

[Tonguez]

I am noticing, the choice of the 2p (second person plural) affects the feel of the text.

In places where it is frequent, the term "you guys" seems more intensely masculine with repetition.

its probably due to being a certain age (plus my nephew adopting it as a catchphrase) but when I hear "you guys" my mind automatically hears Sloth Fratelli
you folks is folksy but has the advantage of no implied hostility which can be conveyed by "you lot" and "you people" (which can also come across as a bit racist in certain dialogues)