You

Pronunciation

• stressed
• UK enPR: yoÍžo,
• US enPR: yoÍžo,
• Rhymes: -uː
• unstressed
• US enPR: yÉ™,
• in h-dropping dialects, hue in h-dropping dialects

Alternative forms

• ye plural form, archaic or dialectal
• ya, yah, yer, yeh, y', yo, yu informal or eye dialect
• -cha informal, after /t/
• -ja informal, after /d/
• u informal, internet
• yoo eye dialect
• yew became obsolete as English spelling became more standardised, then was ‘recoined’ as a nonstandard variant for (chiefly humorous) use in informal situations and on the internet
• youe, yow, yowe obsolete

Origin

From Middle English you, yow, ȝow, (object case of ye), from Old English ēow, īow ("you"; dative case of ġē), from *iwwiz ("you"; dative case of *jīz), Western form of Proto-Germanic *izwiz ("you"; dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *yūs ("you (plural)"), *yū́. Cognate with West Frisian jo ("you"), Low German jo ("you"), Dutch jou & u ("you"), Middle High German eu, iu ("you", obj. pron..), Latin vōs ("you"), Avestan 𐬬𐬋 ("you").

See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; Low German ji, jo/ju, jug and German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with archaic Swedish I.

Full definition of you

Pronoun

1. (object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object. from 9th c.
• 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. Genesis XLII:And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies ....
2. (reflexive, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. from 9th c.
• circa 1591 William Shakespeare, Richard III:If I may counsaile you, some day or two
  Your Highnesse shall repose you at the Tower ....
• 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. Genesis XIX:And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city.
• 1975, Joseph Nazel, Death for Hire:You'd better get you a gun and kill him before he kills you or somebody.
3. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) from 13th c.
• circa 1485 Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII:I charge you, as ye woll have my love, that ye warne your kynnesmen that ye woll beare that day the slyve of golde uppon your helmet.
4. (subject pronoun) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.) from 14th c.Both of you should get ready now.You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
5. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) from 15th c.
• circa 1395 Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Clerk's Tale", Canterbury Tales, Ellesmere manuscript (c. 1410):certes lord
  so wel vs liketh yow
  And al youre werk
  and euere han doon
  þat we
  Ne koude nat vs self deuysen how
  We myghte lyuen
  in moore felicitee ....
• 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park:You are right, Fanny, to protest against such an office, but you need not be afraid.
6. (indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (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 objective (serving as the direct or indirect object of a verb, or object of a preposition; like present-day us, as opposed to we). The corresponding subjective pronoun was ye, and their corresponding singular pronouns were thee and thou, respectively. (Thus you was to ye, thee, and thou as us is to we, me, and I, respectively.)

In some forms of English, you and ye have doubled as plural forms and as polite singular forms, used in addressing superiors and (in some forms) equals, with thee and thou being the non-polite singular forms. Such alternation, insofar as it still exists, is now only dialectal: in present-day English, thee and thou are all but nonexistent.

Although you no longer distinguishes singular from plural, various forms of English have marked plural forms, such as you guys, y'all, or youse (though not all of these are completely equivalent or considered Standard English).

The pronoun you is usually omitted in imperative sentences, but need not be. In affirmative imperatives, 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 the don't, or, more commonly, after it (Don't you dare go in there; Don't you start now).

See for other personal pronouns.

Synonyms

• subject pronoun: the person spoken/written to: thou singular, archaic, ye, yer dialect
• subject pronoun: the persons spoken/written to: all of you plural, ye, yer dialect, you’s plural dialect, y’all informal US plural, you all plural, you + number plural, to the specified number of people
• object pronoun: the person spoken/written to: thee singular, archaic, ye, to you, to thee, to ye
• object pronoun: the persons spoken/written to: ye, to you, to ye, to you all
• (one) one, people, they, them

Derived terms

• you're

Determiner

1. The individual or group spoken or written to.Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus?
2. Used before epithets for emphasis.You idiot!

Verb

1. (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun you, rather than thou.