Yous
You, plural. The Hiberno-English fix for the gap left when standard English collapsed singular 'thou' and plural 'ye' into a single 'you'. 'Are yous coming for a drink?' = are you-plural coming. Also written 'youse' or 'youze'.
Etymology
An Irish-English innovation built on the standard English 'you' plus the plural marker '-s'. The need for a plural pronoun was created when English dropped 'thou' (singular) and 'ye' (plural) and standardised on 'you' for both. Irish, which has 'tú' (singular) and 'sibh' (plural), retained the distinction; Irish English speakers, missing the distinction in English, generated 'yous' as a replacement for 'ye'. The form spread through Ulster Scots ('yous', 'yousuns') and Hiberno-English.
In a sentence
"Are yous coming for one? It's John's birthday and he's standing the first round."
Historical notes
Yous is one of the most-defended pieces of Hiberno-English grammar. Schoolteachers correct it as 'wrong'; speakers continue to use it because standard English does not solve the problem it solves. The construction is heard everywhere from Liverpool to Sydney - Irish emigration carried the form into the working-class English of every diaspora destination, where it has settled into local working-class speech. The extended form 'yousuns' (you-ones, you-plural-people) is the Ulster Scots variant; 'youse' (with -e) is the Liverpool / Glasgow / Sydney form.
Alternate spellings
youse · yousuns · yiz
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry yous / youse pron. (Hiberno-English / Scots plural). · dictionary