Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- pro. Used to refer to the one or ones being addressed: I'll lend you the book. You shouldn't work so hard. See Regional Notes at you-all, you-uns.
- pro. Used to refer to an indefinitely specified person; one: You can't win them all.
- pro. Nonstandard Used reflexively as the indirect object of a verb: You might want to get you another pair of shoes. See Note at me.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- See ye.
Wiktionary
- The individual or group spoken or written to.
- Used before epithets for emphasis.
GNU Webster's 1913
- pro. The pronoun of the second person, in the nominative, dative, and objective case, indicating the person or persons addressed. See the Note under ye.
Etymologies
- 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 *yūs (“you (plural)”). 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 vō ("you"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English ēow, dative and accusative of gē, ye, you. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“To this I reply, I know you do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do_; and if you really suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.”
“To this I reply, I know you do not make the laws, but I also know that _you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do; _ and if you really suppose _you_ can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.”
“How I shall love to see you look fondly at each other as you say: "Be happy, Jim -- you've worked hard for this;" or James says: "Take your comfort, little mother, let them all wait upon _you -- you_ waited upon _them_.”
“But as you do exist, and as I happen to love you, and as I happen to have discovered -- what I could never wildly have dared to hope -- that you are not utterly indifferent to me, I may tell you that I intend to marry _you -- you -- you_.”
“Being @you, especially on a social-media site that becomes a mass-market success, proves you are an early adopter, in on the ground floor of the next big thing.”
The Wall Street Journal: How Adam Got @Adam and Became Cool Online
“Take responsibility for your own life, fate, destiny, etc. and * make life work for you* - do no let it it bow you over and have its way with you, fight back and play the best hand you can with the cards you are dealt.”
“If you don\'t like pay inequity between men and women just remember how American Idol producers pretty much said \ "screw you\" to Paula Abdul.”
Eve Tahmincioglu: Say "no" to American Idol, "yes" to equal pay for women
“ I tell you this: you blink your TV channel surfer at me and you know nothing but that you blinked.”
“But the only noises we make, the only things we can do, are to let you hear, the empty sounds we make when you press us against your ear.”
“KENNETH TURAN: When you call a movie� "Robin Hood," �you set up expectations: a gallant archer, a band of merry men, and a certain criminal camaraderie in Sherwood Forest.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘you’.
-
EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
about, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already and 291 more...
-
EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
-
FUN - gestures
There are thousands of sign languages and possibly millions of gestures in human communication but not all of them have a name. Some are understood everywhere, some are understood everywhere but di...
okay sign, abhayamudra, apology, beckoning sign, Bellamy salute, benediction, blessing, blah-blah, "check, please” sign, clenched fist, Chinese number ge..., Clinton thumb and 360 more...
-
POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...grow, greatest country, greatest, grow the economy, great nation, great decisions, great, government, great NATIONAL su..., good times, good job, good and generous... and 751 more...
-
#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
-
3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
-
Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
-
Words That Can Be Typed Entirely With...
Words made of the following: yuiopghjklbnm. I've stood on the shoulders of giants... users mollusque and reesetee made similar lists before I even existed on Wordnik. :)
you, kill, hippy, milky, mop, lily, yolk, puppy, oily, knoll, poi, hypophyllium
-
You, plural
"You" used to be plural only, but since we lost "thou", "you" has to do double duty as both singular and plural. This can lead to confusion.
Happily, alternative plural pronouns are av...you, you all, y'all, all y'all, you guys, yinz, you lot, youse guys, youse, y'uns, all y'all, kalian and 4 more...
-
Please see attached
things seen. got the idea from the list Stuffie: Just Do It!
red, stars, dead people, the sights, a man about a dog, how it goes, how it went, double, it coming, you, the error of your..., no evil and 47 more...
-
broken
unable, to, complete, request, sorry, something, has, gone, terribly, wrong, When, the and 35 more...
-
recycle
recycling words for ma citz crs wrk
recycle, world, future, carbon footprint, think, deforestation, global warming, dream, freedom, stop!, you, me and 6 more...
-
Vowels only. And I mean: ONLY
Words containing no consonants and found in at least one major dictionary.
Foreign words permitted.aa, eau, oui, aiee, I, oo, euouae, eye, you, ye, yo, yay and 17 more...
-
just popped into my head
words that just popped into my head. Can be anything.
passion, borogoves, charlie chan, sequel, film franchise, just popped into ..., you, go, matrix, the, tetralogy, popsicle stand
-
core words
my, I, mine, your, his, hers, him, her, their, theirs, our, ours and 34 more...
-
Words that are fun to say
gerbil, spleen, rickshaw, ripley, crevis, you, po, hermes, girl, yo, reality, grockle and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for you.
roxanne88 You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, then it is beautiful.
Gestalt prayer. Feb 24, 2010
roxanne88 You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, then it is beautiful.
Gestalt prayer. Feb 24, 2010
gangerh Hah, d, you are such a joy! Jul 3, 2009
dontcry I agree with you, g! Jul 2, 2009
gangerh The magic word in all good copy. Using the word 'you' forces you to have a personal conversation with the person reading it. Don't you agree?
'15 words that will make you money' Jul 2, 2009
stpeter Enough about me, let's talk about you! Jan 10, 2007