this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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ALT TEXT:

  • Panel 1: A person with the text "Singular 'they'" written on them smiling with open arms.
  • Panel 2: "Singular 'They'" beaten up by others who said, "Singular they is ungrammatical. It's too confusing," "How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular," and "Every pronoun should only have one purpose."
  • Panel 3: "You" hiding from the mob who was beating "Singular 'They'"
  • Panel 4: "German 'Sie'" hiding with even more fear next to "You"
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

As somebody whose primary language is Dutch, the lack of an explicit plural "you" is one of the worst things.

If I'm talking to somebody, I can't nicely refer to a group they are part of, because "you" means they themself specifically, "y'all" makes me feel like engineer TF2, and "you people" sounds condescending.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Y'all is good, all y'all is better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You could say "you lot" like our British friends.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

...stateside it's regional whether folks use 'you all', 'you guys', or something more-specific to address plural groups...