Second person plural pronoun

[Yaarel]

In a formal American context (contemporary but educated), when it is necessary to routinely distinguish between singular you and plural you, which pronoun sounds least awkward?

• you ones
• you guys
• you folks
• you lot
• yous


So far I have been using "you ones", and it sounds literary enough. However I also naturally use "one" as a gender neutral pronoun for an unspecified referent. ("One must do this in that kind of situation.") And it ends up being an awful lot of "ones".

By far, "you guys" is the most natural, but it is stigmatically informal, and its implication of male can sometimes be awkward.


If you had to use one of these, which would you use?

 

[DEFCON 1]

I can't say it's a "formal" context, but for me when I refer to second-person plural, I usually use 'y'all'. One word, a contraction of 'you all', understood by pretty much all Americans. But it is exceedingly informal.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You are correct @Yaarel that 'you guys' does get used quite a bit, but that 'guys' is still oftentimes a male connontation-- even though it has become more and more non-gendered over the years in its use as a group noun.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

"THIQ", pronounced "theek", an initialism standing for "the individuals in question"

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Those from the southern states use "All Y'all" which is the closest thing English has to words like Vous or Ustedes.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

‘You ones’ is the most awkward to me. I’ve never heard that before.

I’ve heard ‘Yous’ before but that’s usually as a joke because it’s not proper English, “yous guyz’

‘You all’ is probably more common.

I hear ‘you guys’ a lot but if you want to be gender neutral, ‘you folk’ or ‘you folks’ works.

 

[TwoSix]

In a formal American context (contemporary but educated), when it is necessary to routinely distinguish between singular you and plural you, which pronoun sounds least awkward?

• you ones
• you guys
• you folks
• you lot
• yous


So far I have been using "you ones", and it sounds literary enough. However I also naturally use "one" as a gender neutral pronoun for an unspecified referent. ("One must do this in that kind of situation.") And it ends up being an awful lot of "ones".

By far, "you guys" is the most natural, but it is stigmatically informal, and its implication of male can sometimes be awkward.


If you had to use one of these, which would you use?

Informally, in conversation, I typically default to "you guys".

But I try to structure my sentences to avoid have to use second-person plural as much as I can, precisely because it is such an awkward construction in English.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If this is to be used in somewhat formal documentation, @TaranTheWanderer is correct that 'you all' is probably the most formal option. Guys, ones, folks, yous... all are informal (if not actually considered silly, like 'you lot' and 'yous' would be).

 

[Theory of Games]

Google is just. Google is mighty.

You - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[J.Quondam]

In my personal experience, "you guys" is pretty informal, even verging on humorous. (But that's a regional and pop cultural thing, I imagine.)
I agree with those saying "you all" as the best option, as it can be formal, it's ungendered, and (I think?) it's fairly independent of dialect.