<a href="https://www.italki.com/user/5162161">David陈克雄</a>

"Persons" is only used in formal contexts, for example in official signs and notices and legal documents. 

For example, if you are filling in a tax form, there might be a box you have to fill in about the 'number of persons' in your household. You would read this, but you wouldn't say it: you'd say 'How many people are there?'

Similarly, you might see an official sign in an elevator saying 'Maximum capacity: 10 persons', but you wouldn't say this, either: you'd say 'You shouldn't have more than ten people in here.'

The difference in usage between 'persons' and 'people' is important for you as a learner - the word 'youse' isn't.  (Unless you plan to go and live in Liverpool, of course!)

Being Northern Irish, I can confirm that the informal and colloquial pronoun "yous" is common in everyday speech.  Of course, it should be limited to informal speech and is not for use in formal settings.

Its use arose from the fact that native speakers of the Irish language were accustomed to having singular and plural forms for the word 'you' (tú and sibh) and therefore sought a way to replicate this in English.

In fact, the influence of the Irish language is still evidenced in the vocabulary and grammar of the English spoken on the island. 

Words such as "craic" (meaning great fun) and grammatical structures such as the sentence tags "so you did/so he was/so I do etc" are still in widespread use. 

Therefore, among friends, it would be perfectly normal to hear someone say, "Yous were having great craic at the party so yous were", or in other words, "You were having a great time at the party, weren't you?"

Patrick Kavanagh, the Irish poet, whose works reflect the realities of rural Irish life, employed the pronoun 'yous' in his writing.  Rather than being shocking or incorrect, I prefer to see it as a representation of the richness of everyday speech among friends and family. 

Interestingly, there exist some theories which suggest that its usage in Scouse arose from high levels of Irish immigration to Liverpool.  We were often attributed with lowering the standards of the areas to which we moved, right? [emoji][emoji][emoji]

Interesting discussion topic!

It's not new at all.  The second personal plural pronoun "youse" has been around for a long time, and is widely used, especially in Liverpool.

You're clearly a Beatles fan, Richard, so if you ever happen to visit the Fab Four's home city, you'll find yourself saying "OMG" from morning 'til night.

I'm not sure I understand Ramona's distinction between a 'rather soft s' and a 'sharp' (?) s'.  English doesn't have sharp or soft consonants. The concept of what a 'sharp' consonant might be is particularly baffling.

Were you thinking of voiced and unvoiced consonants, Ramona?  For example, the 's' in the noun 'use' is unvoiced, transcribed as /juːs/, while the 's' in the verb 'use' is voiced, transcribed  as /juːz/.

In fact, as Richard has pointed out, the 's' in 'youse'/'yous' is voiced ( pronounced like a z, as in the verb 'use'). So there is actually no need to add the 'e' in the spelling.  In English, if  's' is the last letter following a vowel sound it is always pronounced as a z. If we see a word like 'taboos' or 'caribous' we know it has a 'z' sound at the end.

I'm in a nice cool room, so if I'm wrong ... I have no excuse!

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The funny thing about this is, that English does in fact not lack a second person plural. It lacks a second person singular! Over the time the old word „thou“ to address the second person singular has become impolite or something and wasn’t used anymore.

So with yous(e) people have created another form for the second person plural but still there’s no solution in sight for the second person singular unless people would want to return to the use of thou or create a new word for it…

As for the spelling, Richard, I could imagine it’s got to do with the pronunciation. I haven’t heard youse very often but if I’m not completely mistaken, it’s pronounced with a rather soft „s“. There are quite a few words in English ending -se with a silent „e“ and a softly pronounced „s“. Probably „youse“ came up first in spoken language so the pronunciation influenced the spelling. On the other hand there are also words ending -se, pronounced with a silent „e“ but a sharp „s“… Better stop here before I write further nonsense... ^^ (A room temperature of 30 °C is my excuse.)