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you guys

Démarré par MaxX, 25 Mar 2009 06:17

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MaxX

hi everyone,

i just want a precision about 'you guys' and you. 'vous' et 'tu'

i'm in canada & everybody use it. it means 'vous' in french...even Obama use it, i heard it on TV ;)
but for example, do i say ' how r you doing guys?' or 'how are you guys doing?'

it was a surprise when i arrived here, first i thought it was only an expression, but finally, it's like a real pronom
cause in france, noboody teach this one...and 'you guys' are deconnected sometimes...

thank you

John Doe

I donno, but interesting question.  :)
I'm no hero. Never was, never will be.

Thomas

That's a good question :) Here's the breakdown of things...

As you know, you have "tu" and "vous" in French. Tu is always singular, and vous can be either singular or plural. In English, we only have the word "you." It can be either singular or plural, such as...

Mom to kid: "Did you do your homework?"
Teacher to class: "You will have a test tomorrow."

However, it is sometimes useful to have a "plural you." There are multiple ways to do this, usually with an adjective, but the two most common (at least in America) are "you guys" and "y'all." The word "y'all" is a contraction of you+all, and it is most commonly used in the South (both the Southeast and the Southwest, though primarily the Southeast), though some people elsewhere use it as well, and it would be understood everywhere. "You guys", on the other hand, is used everywhere outside of the South, so the Northeast, the Midwest, the Northwest, and both the East and West coasts. Typically, the word "guy" refers to a male, but in the plural, it can be either male or female, especially with "you guys." Here's an example with both...

Waiter to family at a restaurant: "What can I get you guys to drink?" or...
"What can I get y'all to drink?"

They mean exactly the same thing. The waiter could have said "What can I get you to drink?" of course, but the waiter wanted to specify that they were adressiing the entire family, and not just one person, so they used a "plural you".

If you see it split apart, such as "What are you doing, guys?" it is similar to the sentence "What are you doing, Eric?" where the word "guys" is used as a name for the entire group. It's usually used together, such as "What arre you guys doing?" but sometimes is moved to the end of the sentence.

Keep in mind that most places where English is spoken (inside or outside of the US), you will usually hear "you guys" and not "y'all" -- if you use "y'all", there is nothing wrong with it, but people will assume that you learned or studied English in the Southern part of the US, because it is primarily found there. Nothing wrong with that, of course (I am actually living in the Southeast right now ;) though I still say "you guys"), it's just something to note. Sometimes people here who hear me say "you guys" instead of "y'all" ask me if I am not from the South, so it's something people do notice, lol.
Hello, and welcome to Apprendre l'anglais.
Bonjour, et bienvenue à Apprendre l'anglais.

MaxX