Since I grew up in the South, I am not ashamed to use Y'ALL when referring to a group of people. It is, after all a contraction of you all.
Most of the country is now using YOU GUYS. I hear it all the time. The incident that motivated me to write about it was heard recently on an episode of one of those home improvement shows.
Anyway, the builder was showing the couple their new 400 square foot dream house (yuck) and said, "This is you guyses space. I wanted it to be what you guys wanted." YOU GUYSES??!!
What is wrong with YOU? YOUR?? As in, "This is your space?"
According to the dictionary, In standard English, you is both singular and plural; it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, (i.e. you are, in common with we are and they are).
Are people so afraid they will slip and say y'all that they go to extreme measures to use you guys?
I found this interesting map on Buzzfeed.com that shows us who is saying you guys and who is saying y'all. The legend shows blue for YOU but I can't see any blue on the map.
So Y'ALL think about this and get back to me. I'm ok with Y'all and You but I'm never saying Y'allses.
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| Statistics from North Carolina State University |
