Y'all
Pronunciation
- IPA: /jɔl/
- cot-caught IPA: /jɑl/
- Rhymes: -É”Ël
- Homophones: yawl
Alternative forms
Origin
Contraction of you all.
Full definition of y'all
Pronoun
y'all
- (chiefly US, dialect, Southern US) plural
- 1987, Judson D. Hale, The education of a Yankee: an American memoir, Much later, after dozens of the men had come up to me to shake my hand (with both of theirs) and say "Y'all come back soon, hear? ...
- 2007, Roy Blount, Long time leaving: dispatches from up South, People in the South do indeed seem to be addressing a single person as "y'all." For instance, a restaurant patron might ask a waiter, "What y'all got for dessert tonight?" In that case, "y'all" refers collectively to the people who run the restaurant.
Usage notes
The form y'all is heard primarily in the Southern United States, and nationwide in AAVE, while youse is heard in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, particularly Philadelphia.
Y'all is never used as a proper singular, but it may be used where there is an implied plural, e.g. "you your team", "you your coworkers", "you your family".
Notwithstanding its etymology, the all in y'all is merely a plural marker, not a quantifier. Thus, just as us may refer either to some of us or all of us in standard English, y'all may refer either to some of y'all or to all of y'all.
Synonyms
- see the list of other second-person pronouns in you