you
pronunciation
How to pronounce you in British English:
UK [ju]
How to pronounce you in American English:
US [jə]
Word Origin
- you
- you: [OE] You was originally the accusative and dative form of ye ‘you’, but it began to take over as the nominative form in the 15th century, and at the same time was in the process of ousting the singular thou to become the general secondperson pronoun. Its West Germanic ancestor *iwwiz, which also produced German euch and Dutch u, went back ultimately to Indo-European *ju (source also of Greek úmme, Sanskrit yūyám, and Lithuanian jūs). Your [OE] comes from the same source, with the genitive ending -er.
- you (pron.)
- Old English eow, dative and accusative plural of þu (see thou), objective case of ge, "ye" (see ye), from Proto-Germanic *juz-, *iwwiz (cognates: Old Norse yor, Old Saxon iu, Old Frisian iuwe, Middle Dutch, Dutch u, Old High German iu, iuwih, German euch), from PIE *yu, second person (plural) pronoun. Pronunciation of you and the nominative form ye gradually merged from 14c.; the distinction between them passed out of general usage by 1600. Widespread use of French in England after 12c. gave English you the same association as French vous, and it began to drive out singular nominative thou, originally as a sign of respect (similar to the "royal we") when addressing superiors, then equals and strangers, and ultimately (by c. 1575) becoming the general form of address. Through 13c. English also retained a dual pronoun ink "you two; your two selves; each other."
Example
- 1. Why did you do that ?
- 2. What evidence do you see ?
- 3. Let me tell you why .
- 4. What are you doing now ?
- 5. Why do you do that ?