Is Y’all Proper English?

Y’all is a subject pronoun that addresses two or more people. It’s the contraction of “you” and “all.” From Texas to Virginia to Florida, it’s usually southerners who say the word y‘all. Americans in other parts of the country generally don’t say it. They’re more likely to use an alternative to y’all such as “you all” or “you guys.” Not only do they not say it, but many American actually look down on y’all, dismissing it as “country” or “uneducated.”

Is Y’all Proper English?

I often get this question from students during English lessons at our Austin language school. Well technically, the answer is no. But that’s only because it’s been labeled as “bad” or “improper” English. Objectively speaking, there’s nothing wrong with it. As I mentioned above, it’s the perfect contraction of “you” and “all.” It even has an apostrophe in the right place.

The real reason the rest of America rejects this pronoun is because they want to avoid sounding “southern.” The thing is…some people in the south speak with a long drawl. It’s especially noticeable in a word like y’all which has no hard syllables. Simply put, most non-southerners don’t want to sound like that.

On a Stack Exchange forum about “y’all,” several commenters make their disdain for the pronoun very clear:

“we only use ‘y’all’ in a comical satirical manner.”

“y’all works great when I’m intentionally being overly-colloquial.”

In other words, they consider y’all to be beneath them, used only by hillbillies in the US South. Of course, it’s entirely possible to say the word without the long drawl. My pronunciation of y’all, for example, is no longer than the length of my other words.

Nonetheless, most people in the non-southern regions of the country simply refuse to say any version of y’all.

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Maybe You Shouldn’t Learn Another Language

Y’all Alternatives

The problem, however, is that no one has suggested a good alternative to y’all. That’s because there is no good alternative to y’all, in my opinion. Despite much of the country’s adamant effort to avoid saying it, no one has thought of a better way of saying it.

You Guys

Perfectly acceptable if you’re talking to two or more guys. Otherwise, if there’s at least one female in the group, you’re basically calling her a guy…not cool. Yes, you successfully avoided saying y’all and sounding southern. But as a result, you labeled this female with the wrong gender. That’s especially problematic in this gender-sensitive era. Of course, you could’ve avoided the offense and the confusion by simply saying y’all, which is gender neutral.

You All

The main problem with “you all” is that it’s really not an alternative to y’all. It’s actually just a refusal to combine you and all into a contraction. Imagine someone who insists on saying do not, will not and cannot because he refuses to say don’t, won’t and can’t. That’s just silly. Contractions make languages easier and there’s no valid reason to avoid them.

You (with a plural implication)

Again, not a valid alternative to y’all, but rather, a stubborn insistence on avoiding it. Saying “you” to two people can even create some confusing situations. Imagine a marriage counselor saying the following sentence to a couple:

“The issue here is that you are not communicating.”

The therapist means to say that both the man and the woman are not communicating. But because he simply said “you”…and was looking at the man when he said it, the man now thinks only he has the communication problem. And the therapist will then have to clarify that the wife also has a communication problem. Why? Because he refused to use the pronoun that would’ve avoided all this confusion; y’all.

Yous

Not even sure where to begin with this one. But I have heard it. It makes no sense. Never say “yous.”

“There is no good alternative to y’all.”

Your Message Is More Important Than Your Words

I’ll take it a step further. I would even recommend that you write the word y’all in your correspondence and maybe even in publications. Some grammarians would consider these suggestions to be blasphemous. And still others would say that’s it’s unwise to use a word that many people view as slang. I understand all that. The last thing I want in a conversation is for my listener to be stuck on my words rather than the point I’m trying to make. I wrote about all this in another post, When Words Get in the Way.

another post you may like: When Words Get in the Way

Distracting Vocabulary

This main point of that post is to emphasize that fancy words are not always helpful. Your rare, fancy word may technically convey the point you’re trying to make. Its definition is precise. But if that word distracts or intimidates your listener, it’s not helping you to get your message across.

Perhaps you’d like to say, for example, that a man’s motives are “antithetical” to the mission of the organization he works for. Problem is, during your next sentence, your listener may be trying to figure out what “antithetical” means. He’s no longer listening to you because he’s stuck on a word you chose to use.

Maybe it would’ve been better to use more common words. The man’s motives are “the opposite of” the mission of the organization, for example. If you’d said this, maybe your listener would still be following your point instead of thinking about your vocabulary.

Is Y’all Proper English?

Along those same lines, it just might be better for you to say y’all in conversations if it avoids distractions. This is especially true if your listener is using the word y’all. That person is clearly comfortable enough with y’all to say it to you. If you then go out of your way to say “you all,” they just might notice it. They might even get a little embarrassed for having said y’all now that you’ve chosen to say it “properly.”

I don’t know about you, but that’s a scenario I try to avoid. Therefore, in this kind of situation, though y’all is not proper English, I would nonetheless suggest that it’s proper for that conversation.

On the contrary, if you’re speaking to two or more people who are not likely to say y’all, then it would be best to use the pronoun they are comfortable with…perhaps you all or even you guys. Again, the point here is to avoid distractions.

As you can see, there’s a question that’s far more important than whether this word or that word is “proper English.” The better question is this; what words are best for this conversation with this person or this audience? The answer to this question will be a better indicator as to which words are proper and which words are not.

The post Is Y’all Proper English? No, But It Should Be appeared first on Prime Instruction & Language | Austin's Premier Language School.

English is exactly the opposite. The grammar and verb conjugations of English certainly take some time to learn. But they’re a breeze in comparison to Spanish grammar. On the other hand, English pronunciation consists of one frustrating exception after another. There is often no rhyme or reason to a word’s pronunciation. And anyone who seriously intends to learn the English language had better get used to hearing this frequent answer to their questions: “that’s just the way it is.” Post continues below ↓

another post you may like: When Words Get in the Way – why using fancy words is more distracting than helpful

Why is Spanish one of the hardest languages to learn?

Fluent communication in Spanish requires a mastery of more than a dozen verb conjugations. It has this in common with other Latin-based romance languages such as French and Italian. This vast grammatical complexity is further complicated by a dizzying set of rules and exceptions to the rules which are hard to keep straight. These daunting challenges of Spanish grammar are the primary reason why Spanish is a difficult language to learn.

Consider, for example, the verb comer (to eat). In English, there are only a few ways to talk about eating. If it’s you or me, both of us, you and someone else or two other people…the verb is consistently the same;

I eat, you eat, we eat, y’all eat or they eat

The only exception is if it was one singular person (not you or me). In that case, we say eats.

He eats, she eats

If any of these people are doing it now, you say they are eating.

And if any of these people did their eating in the past, regardless of who it is, you say they ate.

Lastly, if your point is that the person no longer needs to eat, you say they have eaten.

That’s it! In the entire English language, regardless of who is eating or when they’re eating, there are only 5 variations (conjugations) of the verb.

1. eat
2. eats
3. eating
4. ate
5. eaten

Conjugation Constipation

In Spanish, there are 5 variations of the verb comer (to eat) in the present tense alone!

1. yo como (I eat)
2. tú comes (you eat)
3. él / ella come (he / she eats)
4. nosotros comemos (we eat)
5. ustedes / ellos comen (y’all / they eat)

In the past tense, comer has another 5 conjugations. In the other past tense, another 5. The future, conditional, present perfect and past perfect tenses of comer each have another 5 conjugations for you to learn. And that’s not including the conjugations of the verb in the subjunctive mood, which are critical for fluent speaking.

And if that wasn’t complicated enough, the command form of the verb (imperative) will depend on whether you have a familiar or formal relationship with the person you’re commanding. What!? Now you have some idea of why the verb conjugations of Spanish makes it one of the hardest languages to learn.

another post you may like: How to Learn a Language

Why is English one of the hardest languages to learn?

To fully understand the complexity of American English, one has to consider many aspects of American culture. Compared with other countries, everything about the US is fast. We have fast freeways, fast food, fast delivery, fast internet and instant coffee. Plus, Americans work fast and hard. Everything around the workplace is designed and arranged to make workers faster, more productive and more efficient. And one of the most important tools which facilitates this quick work is the language Americans use to communicate. It’s quick, short and to the point.

As a result, the English language has been whittled down to its bare essentials in the common vernacular of American conversations. The highs, lows and pauses of a sentence are often eliminated, replaced by a quick, even utterance of only the essential sounds. Therefore, a common, everyday questions such as “What are you going to do?” sounds more like “whatcha gonna do?”. “I’m going to go over there” sounds more like “I’m gonna go o’er there.” Or even shorter: “Ima go o’er there.”

Before an English learner has any chance of understanding these abbreviated, chopped up types of sentences, they must first learn the long and correct way of saying them. That takes time. And this is one of the reasons why English is one of the hardest languages to learn.

Inconsistent Pronunciation

Another factor which makes English a difficult language to learn is the inconsistent pronunciation of its letter combinations. A student correctly pronounces the word “dove” and “above” because he already knows how to say “love.” But then he comes across the words “move” and “prove” and must accept that the “ove” in these these words is pronounced very differently that the “ove” of “dove” and “above.”

Anyhow, he accepts that there’s simply two ways of pronouncing this letter combination and continues his studies. But then he comes across the words “cove” and “wove.” They also have “ove.” But they don’t sound like “love” nor “move.” Could there possibly be three ways of pronouncing “ove?” Yes there are!

And don’t even get me started on though, through and thought. These three words have been perplexing English learners for centuries. Again, they all include the same letter combination (ough). But that combination has a different pronunciation in each of the three words. In though, it sounds like “ooo.” In through, it sounds like “oh.” And in thought, it sounds like “ah.” That’s confusing.

Each English vowel has a long and a short pronunciation. Combined with other letters, they make a variety of sounds. This is not so in Spanish. Every letter of a Spanish word gets pronounced with the same pronunciation it has in every other word. Only the letter H is silent.

Phrasal Verbs

For those who wish to learn or teach English, you’d better get used to phrasal verbs. These verb + preposition combinations are found throughout the English language. They’re yet another example of how Americans shorten and simply language to make it quicker and easier. Consider for a moment that each of the following phrasal verbs have a different meaning;

• get up
• get down
• get in
• get out
• get by
• get away
• get away with
• get through
• get on
• get off
• get after
• get across
• get around
• get at
• get between
• get into
• get under
• get over

Not only do these phrases have different meanings. But each one has multiple meanings! And this is just a simple list of the phrasal verbs that include “get.” The same thing can be done with other common verbs like run, take or come.

Most of these phrasal verbs are used in place of a specific, less common verb. To “get after” someone is to scold them. To “get across” a point to someone is to convey a point. To “get away” is to elude. But instead of learning rare words like scold, convey and elude, Americans slap a common verb and a common preposition together. And this new, resulting phrase becomes the new way of expressing that action.

If you’re interesting in learning or teaching phrasal verbs, the most important book to use and reference is Ultimate Phrasal Verbs, by Carl Hart. It is without a doubt the most comprehensive book which explains phrasal verbs. It also includes hundreds of excellent exercises. I cannot recommend it enough. It makes a difficult language like English a little easier to learn and teach.

The post Why Are English & Spanish Among the Hardest Languages to Learn? appeared first on Prime Instruction & Language | Austin's Premier Language School.