And then there's the Kiwi version - "you" for singular, "youse" for
plural. (As in "Youse guys going down the pub?")

RP

On 02/08/06, Howard Winter <HDRW@h2org.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Alan,
>
> On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 08:06:24 +0100, Alan B. Pearce wrote:
>
> > >One part of this is IMO that the English language doesn't
> > >provide (to my knowledge) an easy way to distinguish
> > >between "you" (singular) and "you" (plural).
> >
> > My reaction is to say "yes it does", but the singular has dropped out of use.
> >
> > The singular for you is "thou", as used in the Bible, and the plural is "you".
>
> Thou art correct, sir!  :-)  But "nobody" uses it any more, rather like saying "five and twenty" instead of "twenty five", but when I was
> at school some of the older teachers did say numbers like that.  I don't know when "thou" died out, but I'd guess about the middle 1800s.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Howard Winter
> St.Albans, England
>
>
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