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You, You, You and You
Teacher Training Discussion Points from www.roadtogrammar.com
Did you know that the word, ‘you’ has at leastfour meanings?1 The first use is of ‘you’ as the second personsingular:Jack, where are
you
going?We are talking to Jack and
you
refers to Jack.Hundreds of years ago, English speakers usedthe word, ‘thou’ as the second person singularand distinguished it from the second personplural, but this was lost in time.2 The second use of you is the second person plural.Class,
you
must complete your homework on time.We are talking directly to a group of people and we refer to them by
you
(andyour).3 Next, we have something called the ‘generic you’. Although this is rarelymentioned in grammar books, it is extremely common. The generic you means‘anyone’:
You
can’t make a cake without eggs.A more formal way of saying this is to use ‘one’:One can’t make a cake without eggs.In fact, this is called the ‘generic one’.English learners first come across the generic you when they learn basicclassroom language:How do
you
spell that?
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