a problem bothering me when i was reading notes in italki,it suddenly occured to me that why the word "you" can refer to not only one person but also many people,which has bothered me from the firs

Ynez Z

a problem bothering me when i was reading notes in italki,it suddenly occured to me that why the word "you" can refer to not only one person but also many people,which has bothered me from the first time i learned English.it is interesting because "i" and "we" meams differently in English. In Chinese,"you" equels 你 and 你们,the former means one person while the latter means people.我and 我们 respectively equel I and we. Is it a kind of ideological or cultural difference or something else?and have it ever confused you when people said"you"? and most importantly,do my questions sound silly?

Dec 21, 2014 5:09 AM

Corrections · 5

a problem bothering me

When I was reading notes on italki, it suddenly occured to me that the word "you" can refer to not only one person but also many people, which has bothered me from the time I started to learn English. It is interesting because "I" and "we" mean different things in English.
In Chinese,"you" equals 你 and 你们, the former means one person while the latter means people.我and 我们 respectively equal I and we.
Is it a kind of ideological or cultural difference or something else? And has it ever confused you when people said"you"? And most importantly,do my questions sound silly?

They're not silly at all! Many languages have two forms of you, and only one of them can mean more than one person. English used to have two forms of you as well--but we stopped using the other one. Many English speakers have the same problem as you do, so we add something to "you" to make it plural--people say "you guys," "y'all (you all)" or even "yous" depending on where they are from. :-)

December 22, 2014

thank you,@Savanna,that does help a lot^O^. thank you@charlescuy,that makes much sense^V^ (wish the @ works,because i dont know how to reply respectively in sellphone)

December 22, 2014

You can be a problem, whether it is in the singular form or plural form. For myself I use the word you when the person or persons are more familiar to me or a feel that a more personal level exists. I use people when the group is recognizable, but there is not so much familiarity. Maybe this will make a little sense.

December 21, 2014

Generally when we say you and we are talking about more than one person, it is followed by another word... Like you all, you guys, or you people. because you means someone other than the self, and the second word indicates that it is a group. Does this help?

December 21, 2014

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