You

You may never join this all up the way I've written it, of course.

In standard English, you is both singular and plural; it always takes a verb form that originally marked the word as plural, such as you are. This was not always so. Early Modern English distinguished between the plural you and the singular thou. This distinction was lost in modern English due to the importation from France of a Romance linguistic feature which is commonly called the T-V distinction. This distinction made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. This distinction ultimately led to familiar thou becoming obsolete in standard English, although this did not happen in other languages such as French. Ironically, because thou is now seen primarily in literary sources such as King James Bible (often directed to God, who is traditionally addressed in the familiar) or Shakespeare (often in dramatic dialogs, e.g. »Wherefore art thou Romeo?«), many modern anglophones erroneously perceive it as more formal, rather than familiar (case in point: in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader addresses the Emperor saying, »What is thy bidding, my master?«).

Because you is both singular and plural, various English dialects have attempted to revive the distinction between a singular and plural you to avoid confusion between the two uses. This is typically done by adding a new plural form; examples of new plurals sometimes seen and heard are y'all, or you-all (primarily in the southern United States and African American Vernacular English), you guys (in the U.S., particularly in Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast, in Canada, and in Australia), you lot (in the UK), youse guys (in the U.S., particularly in New York City region, Philadelphia, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and rural Canada; also spelt without the E), and you-uns/yinz (Western Pennsylvania, The Appalachians). English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English, sometimes uses the word ye as the plural form, or yous (also used in Australia, however not the form ye). Although these plurals are useful in daily speech, they are generally not found in Standard English. Among them, you guys is considered most neutral in the U.S.[1] It is the most common plural form of you in the U.S. except in the dialects with y'all, and has been used even in the White House.[2]

You is also unusual in that, being both singular and plural, it has two reflexive forms, yourself and yourselves. However, in recent years singular themself is sometimes seen: see singular they. abbreviation (used in 'text talk'): u

Are you going to tiptoe through life, hoping to make it safely to the grave?

You will still find the forest, if you go and look for it; but in those days, two hundred years ago, it was much bigger than it is now, and there were deer and other wild animals, and men wilder than they.

»You, my boy, carry the load of eternity.«

Piccadilly, in his cups this long white afternoon in the Farringdon Road.

Frank says, »That is a load of horse pucky.«

Piccadilly wishes for French fries, hot flint under his feet in summer, an empty bar in a place he remembers vividly. A word like Boston in the white afternoon.

[Communication in here is impossible, I was told, but I'm back, Julianne. Are you out there?]

i wish that you would leave my dreams. it's been almost 10 years. haven't i carried you around in my head for long enough?

You have the power to make someone's day.

Write a letter to someone you love, put it in an envelope and send it.

It will bring unexpected joy when found amidst the bills and circulars in the mail.

i say »you« probably a hundred times a day. when i ran this by my girlfriend, she said: »no way.« she thinks i say »you« more like 20 times a day, though that would be the mean on a scale with some serious extremes. see, our way of solving problems is that i just say »okay« to whatever she says (»yeah, you're right«), but i dress whatever it was she said in a bunch of whatever i like. but i don't tell her. she thinks i'm saying that i say »you« more like 20 times. which, while possibly true, is not always true. especially when i imitate luther vandross: »you got, you got, you got WHAT I WANT.«

»It's an easy thing to forget the subtle shades of a moment,« she said. »That's why I have to write everything down.«

And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning. And you and I reach over the sun for the river. And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement. And you and I called over valleys of endless seas.

What else will you contribute to today? I personally am enamoured of that little site round the corner.

'You must not attach too great weight to a remark founded on first appearances, my friend,' said I.