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] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Isn't "You" always singular? The words it's accompanied by make the overall statement plural. Like "you guys" or "you all". My brain might be slow this morning, but I can't think of any instance where it's plural without an accompanying word.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You used to be just second person plural, thou was second person singular. At some point, thou fell out of favour and we started using just you

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

Alright, I can think of a few instances given that context. Funny how it's original usage is now relatively uncommon.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

You can see it's still grammatically plural even when used as a singular with the other words that go around it too. "You are" instead of the singular "is".

It can even make singular things kinda behave like they're plurals. Like "The Lemmy user is posting comments" vs. "you, the Lemmy user are posting comments"

Back in the day it was "thou art posting comments" (singular) and "ye are posting comments"(plural). With "ye" becoming "you" over time. Although they also had more funky letters like ȝ and þ and stuff.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Nope, you can be 2nd person plural. You can refer to a group of people as "you"

For example, imagine a security guard saying to a group of shoppers "you need to leave the store".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

When you really need to make sure everyone knows you're speaking to them.