Texas English: “Y’all”

English is spoken all over the world. So naturally, there are regional differences. The English you learn from a textbook or in class is more or less standardized. If you learn it, people won’t necessarily know which region’s English variety you learned. But if you spend time in an English-speaking area, you’ll quickly discover that people don’t always use English the way your English teacher taught you.

We’re going to examine a word that is very common in the U.S. state of Texas (and in much of the southern United States). If you learn it, you’ll be on your way to sounding like a native Texan. Of course, as this is a regional term, if you travel to another part of the English-speaking world, you might be better off sticking to standard English.

The word? Y’all.

Why Does Y’all Exist?

No language is perfect, including English. In fact, English is missing a very important word—at least, that’s what many native English speakers seem to think. The missing word? A separate plural form of you. When you learned English, you no doubt learned that you is the same in the singular and plural. But this is really inconvenient. Imagine you’re in a store and you’re looking for some paint. You might find a store employee and ask this question:

Do you have any paint?

Who are you referring to? The employee or the store? The employee probably doesn’t have any paint personally, but there’s no easy way in standard English to make it clear that you’re asking about the store, not the employee. So, people throughout the English-speaking world have invented various ways to make this clear. The Texas solution (also used in several other areas in the United States) is the word y’all:

Do y’all have any paint?

A plural Form of You

If you check a dictionary, it will probably say that y’all means “you all.” However, if you listen to Texans speak, you’ll discover that it really is just a plural form of you. Consider this table of Texas English (the formal name for such a table is a paradigm):

How to Use Y’all

Note:

Y’all is usually used only in informal spoken English. It is rarely written. When you write, use you as a plural.

Use y’all any time that it might be unclear whether you mean you singular or you plural. Most speakers switch back to you after the plural meaning has been established. This is especially true for the possessive form. You’ll hear people speak both of these ways:

Did y’all come to pick up y’all’s car?

Did y’all come to pick up your car?

While people in some areas can use y’all to mean “you all,” Texans usually have their own way:

Are y’all two [= the two people that I’m pointing at] coming, or are all y’all coming?

As you can see, all y’all means “all of you” or “everybody.”

Y’all is a really useful word, but did you know that English used to have a separate, standard form of you? You can read about it here. For more Texas English vocabulary, you can read about fixin’ to.