Table of Contents
- 1 Does English have second-person plural?
- 2 Is 2nd person singular or plural?
- 3 Why is second person plural?
- 4 Can you be plural in English?
- 5 Do all languages have plurals?
- 6 Does every language plural?
- 7 Why doesn’t English have a second person plural?
- 8 What is the second person singular of ‘You’?
- 9 How do you address multiple people in southern English?
Does English have second-person plural?
English has always had a gender-neutral second-person plural pronoun: you. You has been the second-person plural pronoun since the days of Old English. You has always been everyone’s second-person plural, from Beowulf to both the Queens Elizabeth (or if you prefer, both the Queen Elizabeths).
Is 2nd person singular or plural?
First, Second, and Third Person Pronouns
| Person | Subjective Case | Possessive Case Possessive Pronouns |
|---|---|---|
| Second Person Singular | you | yours |
| Third Person Singular | he/she/it | his/hers/its |
| First Person Plural | we | ours |
| Second Person Plural | you | yours |
Which language has no plural form?
The languages which do not distinguish singular and plural grammatically include the 3 East Asian languages Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Bengali and Assamese. Unlike Chinese or Japanese, Korean does have a plural form: 들 (deul).
Why is second person plural?
In fact, the English language, like most languages, has always found a way to distinguish between the singular and plural forms of its second person pronoun. For this purpose, the second personal plural was pressed into additional service as a singular pronoun of polite address.
Can you be plural in English?
In Modern English, you is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
Can you speak in second-person?
The second-person point of view belongs to the person (or people) being addressed. This is the “you” perspective. Once again, the biggest indicator of the second person is the use of second-person pronouns: you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves.
Do all languages have plurals?
Firstly, not all languages treat the number of nouns in the same way. For example, Chinese and Japanese have a single form for plurals. German, English, Spanish have two forms. On the other hand, some Slavic languages have 3 or more forms for plural nouns.
Does every language plural?
In most languages, the singular is formally unmarked, whereas the plural is marked in some way. Other languages, most notably the Bantu languages, mark both the singular and the plural, for instance Swahili (see example below).
Does English have second person?
Why doesn’t English have a second person plural?
English isn’t ‘missing’ a second person plural, it’s just that ‘you’ supplanted ‘thou’ as the second person singular. In French, vous is also used as a second person singular, but only formally, with tu still remaining widely in use. A similar thing happened in Dutch in the 16th century, where du,…
What is the second person singular of ‘You’?
, Recovering prescriptivist. English isn’t ‘missing’ a second person plural, it’s just that ‘you’ supplanted ‘thou’ as the second person singular. In French, vous is also used as a second person singular, but only formally, with tu still remaining widely in use.
Do second person pronouns differ in different countries?
Even Spanish, a major international language which, unlike English, is regulated by an academy, uses different second person pronouns, plural and singular, which vary from country to country.
How do you address multiple people in southern English?
Southern dialect includes two second person plural expresesions: “y’all” (you all) which they use to address two or three people at a time and “all y’all” which is used to address many people at once. However, in formal English, a second person plural is unnecessary because it’s assumed you’re addressing a collective.